


New Beginnings

by Faerlynn



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 10:08:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19766002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerlynn/pseuds/Faerlynn
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia had a home once. It was full of loud and loving family members who drank and partied too much and were nosy, but they were family nonetheless and she adored each and every one of them. So much so that when their lives were endangered by Tartaros she made an ultimate sacrifice in order to save their lives...only to be abandoned and left for dead in a hospital full of doctors and nurses who blamed Fairy Tail for yet another attack on Magnolia.But what happens when Natsu walks back into her life more than two years after he left and acts like nothing has changed?Lucy has changed in ways that Natsu will never understand and the rest of their former Guild is no better than him.**This is an Incomplete Work that will be updated periodically**This story is not canon and is an idea I had to explore a few “what if’s” that I had floating around in my mind.





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

Covering the GMG in Crocus was a bad idea. It brought back too many memories. She could clearly envision Natsu struggling across the chariots, or Gray fighting in the maze. Erza kicking ass in that castle full of monsters. There was too much pain - but Lucy Heartfilia trudged on, commentating as best she could as a guest judge. She was still favoured by Princess Hisui and the King and couldn’t turn down their invitation to be on the judging panel, no matter how much she wanted to.

But the Grand Magic Games were finally ending, the finale happening below her as she fought down the pain of remembrance and tried to focus.

A roar from the crowd bought Lucy back to attention as one of the men in the arena hit the dirt with enough force to leave a crater beneath him and send a cloud of dust wafting over the crowd.

The games had been won, the GMG was over.

_Finally._

Lucy wasted no time standing, applauding and pasting on the fake smile that only her Spirits could see through, moving toward the exit behind her seat.

She was halfway down the corridor when she felt it. That heat. She’d recognise it anywhere. She would hate herself for this later, but she rushed back into the arena. Desperate to see him.

‘I CHALLENGE THE WINNER!’

_Of course, he would._

His heat was stronger than she’d ever felt before, rolling off him in waves that turned the sand in the arena to glass and was melting any metal in sight. He took them down without even lifting a finger. Both guilds from the finale had rushed the arena, ten highly trained and ferociously strong mages, and all he did was exhale. The heat of his breath rending them useless in seconds.

‘LUCY!’ A blue ball of fluff hit her square in the chest, nestling right into her cleavage before shooting back into the air and shouting: ‘Hey Natsu! I found Lucy!’

Everything stopped as he looked at her. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak.

And then he was running. The heat in the arena dissipated as he leapt, nimbly landing on the railing in front of her.

It wasn’t until that stupid grin was right in her face, until he had reached for her, had his hand on her arm pulling her in, that she was able to think again.

‘Remove your hand, or I will do it for you,’ she growled.

Natsu flinched as though she had hit him almost fell off the balcony.

Lucy didn’t need to see any more. She turned on her heel, going straight back through the corridor once again.

‘So, is the rest of the guild with you? How is everyone?’

Lucy nearly exploded. Of course, he wouldn’t know. He didn’t even bother to see if she regained consciousness! Why would he have bothered with this?

‘There is no guild, Natsu. Makarov disbanded Fairy Tail after we defeated Tartaros.’

‘That’s ridiculous, Luce,’ he said, but he didn’t, at all, sound convinced. ‘He wouldn’t have done that.’

Lucy said nothing. He could find out the rest on his own. She could hear him behind her, but she didn’t stop. She walked straight to the train station, knowing her luggage had already been sent there, and boarded her train. He couldn’t follow. He didn’t have any means of getting on this train. It was a private train, reserved for officials of the GMG and arranged by the King himself.

_Coward, you couldn’t face him at all._

She didn’t look back as the train took off, not wanting to see him. A bright light beside her signalled the opening of a celestial gate. She knew who it would be.

‘Well, he certainly has some balls,’ Loke said.

She could tell he was furious, but he didn’t want to set her off.

‘Should we have expected any less?’

‘He has no idea, does he?’

‘I doubt he cares,’ Lucy replied.

Resting her head against the back of the seat she closed her eyes. It was a hopeless endeavour.

_I haven’t slept more than an hour or two a day since they abandoned me in that damn hospital. Why would now be any different?!_

* * *

**Natsu** was at a loss for words. He stood on the platform until long after her train had disappeared. She hated him. It was obvious. He could scent her rage, her pain. Her hatred.  
He was ecstatic to see her again, he just wanted to hug her like he always had. She was his best friend, for christ sake! Why was she so angry?!

‘Natsu?’

He was bought back to earth by his little blue friend.

‘Yeah, Happy?’

‘We should go. The next train to Magnolia is in a few hours. We can buy a ticket and meet Lucy at the guild in a day or two.’

Natsu reached down to scratch behind Happy’s ear.

‘We’ll catch the next one. I’ve just got to do one thing first.’

**‘So** , we’re probably going to get into a lot of trouble,’ said Happy.

Natsu bought their tickets at the counter and booked their private compartment. He nodded, dreading the trip he was about to take. He’d gotten a lot stronger as a Dragon Slayer…and so had his motion sickness. He curled up in a ball of misery the moment the train started moving.

Happy was thrilled to have the food to himself, starting on the fish he’d hidden in his pack and moving on later to the food in Natsu’s. It was a full day on that damned train to reach Magnolia. A WHOLE DAY. How had he forgotten that?

‘I’M ALIVE!’ he shouted, excitedly jumping off the train and worshipping the solid, completely reliable, not-at-all-moving platform. It wasn’t until he stood up that he registered the whispers.

‘Is that the Salamander?’

‘What’s he doing here?’

‘Do you think Lucy knows?’

He looked around at the people, watching them hide their faces and shuffle away quickly. It was strange. Almost like Magnolia didn’t want him here. For the first time in his life, he felt truly unwelcome.

‘Come on Happy, let’s go to the Guild Hall.’

‘Aye, Sir!’

* * *

**Lucy** stared, dumbfounded, at the communication lacrima as Hisui explained what had happened. That complete idiot had defaced the ROYAL PALACE!

‘HE DID WHAT?!’

The Princess winced and flinched back from the communication lacrima.

‘Look, it’s not too big a deal to me, but Father was angry. It’s going to take some time to repair. He was going to call you himself, and the guards were talking about criminal charges. I just wanted to warn you,’ she said, looking at Lucy with pity.

Lucy held her tongue, denying herself the chance to unleash the anger that was her constant companion, and put on her professional face.

‘How much is it going to cost to repair the palace?’

‘Uh,’ Hisui paused, getting the number from her knight.

Lucy almost choked as she heard the cost but didn’t let it show.

‘I’ll have Virgo come to you with the money. Please give my apologies to your Father and I hope the payment for the damages will be enough.’

Lucy disconnected the lacrima and summoned Virgo.

‘Princess, do you desire punishment?’

Lucy ignored the question - well and truly used to it after the years she’d spent with her - and got to business. Loke took Virgo’s place once she had disappeared to deliver her package to the palace.

‘What the hell was he thinking, Loke?’

‘It’s Natsu,’ he scoffed, stepping behind the bar of the former Fairy Tail Guild Hall, now simply the Fairy Tail Bar ‘n’ Grill. ‘He probably got bored.’

Loke went to work behind the bar, setting everything up for opening. Lucy had officially purchased the Guild Hall from the city after a fortunate legal inquiry determined that the take-over of her Father’s company ten years ago had been illegal and determined that Lucy was the rightful heir to the fortune now that her Father had passed. She had her childhood home back, and she officially sold her Father’s companies. Lucy was now, technically, the richest person in all of Magnolia and the surrounding cities. She no longer had to worry about rent…and her life was still miserable.

A little pop announced the presence of Virgo once again.

‘Princess, I have news from the King and Princess Hisui,’ she said, handing Lucy an envelope stamped with the royal seal. ‘They have accepted the apology and said that the payment was more than enough to cover the costs of the palace repairs.’

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as Virgo went out to set up tables for the dinner service. The bar was a novelty now, a tourist attraction. Home of the former most famous and powerful guild in Fiore, run by a staff of Celestial Spirits and their Wizard, who also happened to be a bajillionaire.


	2. Chapter 2

**Loke** watched as Lucy set to her paperwork, reading over crime reports from the mayor and the reports given to her by Gemini, who had been spying on the new council since its formation.

Lucy’s sadness was a heavy weight on his heart. And his rage with the former members of Fairy Tail a blazing inferno.

He thought back to the events that had led them here.

_Lucy had just summoned the Celestial Spirit King. She was fighting so hard, and she was so strong, but she had become overwhelmed and done something that he knew would destroy her. He watched from the Spirit World, trying to heal as fast as possible to get back to her, as Aquarius’ key shattered and Lucy’s heart broke._

_The Spirit King’s rage tore through the spirit world and Aquarius appeared beside Loke. He said nothing as she collapsed, uncontrollable sobs wracking her body. Scorpio appeared, dragging himself to his love to try and console her, but they both knew it was hopeless. Aquarius had broken her own heart when she persisted that Lucy sacrifice her to summon the King._

_Little did anyone know that Aquarius’ animosity toward Lucy had absolutely nothing to do with Lucy herself. Aquarius had loved Layla Heartfilia as a sister, her best friend, and Lucy looked exactly like her mother. Acted as her mother would have acted. Whenever Aquarius looked at Lucy, she saw her lost friend, and consistent heartbreak would drive anyone to resentment._

_Aquarius pulled herself together enough to keep watch over Lucy, to send Lucy her Star Dress, to cheer her on and send as much strength as she could._

_But Lucy’s magic was almost gone, still conscious through sheer willpower and adrenaline alone. They watched together as the Dragons fell…and she rocked the Spirit World with what she did next._

_It is the rarest of gifts for a Celestial Wizard to have the ability to create a gate key. So rare, in fact, that only two other wizards in all of history had ever done it._

_But Lucy, on instinct alone, summoned five at once._

_No one knew what she had done, she didn’t even fully understand herself, but she had extended her magic to the souls of the five fading Dragons and offered life. All five accepted immediately._

_All five were saved._

_Lucy had created the Celestial Spirit Dragons Igneel, Metalicana, Grandeena, Weisslogia and Skiadrum._

_And she had instinctively contracted them all to her._

_Even the Celestial Spirit King, back in the spirit world after his battle, was stunned to silence, his rage at Lucy’s pain temporarily forgotten. Lucy had enough time to hand a key to each of the Dragon Slayers before her body shut down and she lost consciousness completely._

_She was taken to the hospital in Magnolia and abandoned. Natsu was the only person to visit her before leaving, and all he did was leave a note before he left through the window_

_Lucy was never cared for by the hospital staff._

_As usual, Fairy Tail had taken a lot of the blame for the Tartoros attack and the bright pink Guild Mark on Lucy’s hand made her the only remaining target for their anger._

_Lucy was on the brink of death, neglected and comatose, when he was finally able to get a message to Yukino through Libra._

_The Sabretooth Guild came barrelling through the hospital doors to find Lucy, barely breathing and with a pulse so weak that she barely had one at all._

_Her life was saved by Yukino, who nearly killed herself by sharing her power with Lucy. She kept Lucy alive just long enough for Porliusica to stabilise her and drag her back from oblivion._

_Porlisuica’s rage was terrifying; directed solely at Makarov for abandoning his child when she needed him most._

_Lucy woke a few weeks later to find that, once again, her family was gone._

_She fell into a depression. She drank. And then, as if a switch was flipped, she turned off her heart completely. She felt for her spirits and her spirits alone._

_She trained relentlessly, rebuilt the city and the guild hall. Searched tirelessly for her Guild Mates, just to know that they were okay. Earned the trust of the people again. Became strong enough that when she saw Jurah in the city he informed the other Wizard Saints of Lucy’s power._

Coming back to the present, Loke couldn’t help but think that none of that mattered.

Lucy was still broken.

And if he had his way, he would very soon be breaking every part of Salamander that he could get his hands on.

* * *

**‘THE** GUILD HALL!’ Natsu cheered, fist pumping the air as Happy did mid-air somersaults in excitement.

‘Lucy said the Guild was gone! But it’s here!’ he shouted, completely missing the new _Bar ‘n’ Grill_ line underneath the name _Fairy Tail._

They ran to the doors, kicking them open as they usually would.

‘WE’RE ALIVE!’

Silence.

They were greeted by silence.

And then they were upside down, hanging from the rafters, courtesy of Virgo.

‘You can stay there, Salamander. I will punish you when our customers have left,’ she growled, punching him in the gut as she left him there.

He could smell Lucy everywhere, but no one else in here was familiar to him. In fact, they all looked like townspeople. And was that Taurus? With a serving tray? And Loke behind the bar?

_What the hell?_

Natsu hung there so long that he almost passed out. Happy, the sneaky critter, had used his teeth to crawl his way up Natsu’s body and perched himself on the soles of his upside-down feet, using him as a bench to look out over the Guild.

Suddenly, and painfully, the ropes disappeared and Natsu smashed face first through a table. He was about to complain when he realised that the Spirits of the Zodiac had surrounded him. All of them. Including Libra, Pisces and that freaky thirteenth snake lady who he knew served Yukino.

And they were pissed.

Happy knew it, too. He hadn’t even shouted about yummy fishies when Pisces appeared.

‘Um…hi?’

Loke kicked him in the face, sending him crashing into the wall. He groaned, but he’d learned to pick his battles while he was away. He wasn’t as reckless as he used to be and had figured out that fighting the enemy was easier if you knew what you were fighting and why.

Not to say he wasn’t still an idiot. He’d greatly altered the topography of several mountain ranges during training and had even caused the eruptions of a few volcanoes. There were several mountain ranges that simply didn’t exist anymore.

‘Why did you come back?’

The menacing growl from his left was made all the more terrifying when he realised that the threatening voice had come out of sweet, little Aries.

‘Fairy Tail is my home. I was always coming back.’

He was surprised again when Lyra appeared, kicked him in the ribs, and disappeared. Apparently, the entirety of the Spirit World was watching this little exchange.

‘Why are you hitting us?!’ Happy shouted, flinching away from Virgo when she changed into a skin-tight, black body suit with handcuffs and a whip attached to her spiked belt.

‘Because you deserve to be punished in the worst way for what you’ve done to Lucy,’ purred Virgo, her eyes lit up with excitement as she fondled her whip.

‘What did I ever do to Lucy?!’

The wrong words. Those were the wrong words.Capricorn kicked him so hard that he smashed through the bar. Usually composed, Capricorn’s rage burst forth with the power of a hurricane.

Natsu was done being a punching bag and not knowing why. He lashed out, his power so strong that each of the spirits were thrown backwards. Happy flew to him, hovering behind him for protection.

‘What the hell is going on?!’ He was angry and hurt and confused.

He thought he was friends with Lucy’s spirits, especially Loke.

‘What’s wrong, Natsu, is that you left Lucy to die and her spirits are quite angry with you for doing it.’

Natsu turned toward the new voice, shocked to find that it had come from Jurah. He was confused and a little worried, he’d fight his best, but he’d barely survive a beating from a Wizard Saint.

‘I’d never do that. She was in the hospital last time I saw her.’

Magical energy flared inside the bar as the zodiac spirits began to glow with power.

‘Be calm,’ said Jurah, stepping in front of the spirits. ‘The bar is all Lucy has, so let’s not destroy any more of it.’

The power dissipated; the spirits’ glow faded.

Jurah turned to Natsu, clearly angry, and indicated that he should sit. He took a seat at a nearby table, Jurah taking the seat across from him.

‘Is Lucy here?’ he ventured, uncomfortable with the silence and all the eyes glaring into him.

‘No, Lucy is in a meeting with the Mayor and some of the Royal Knights. There have been some disturbances lately, possibly connected to a roaming dark guild, and they’ll need Lucy’s help.’

_Huh?_

‘Natsu, your face is squished,’ Happy chirped, poking his cheek.

‘Why are they meeting with Lucy?’

‘Oh! You’re confused! I’ll find you a fishy,’ and Happy flew out the nearest window. 

‘Did you think she would be helpless without you, Natsu?’

‘WHAT?! Lucy was never helpless, old man, FIGHT ME!’

Natsu didn’t get a chance to jump up. Jurah whacked him on the top of his head and sent him slamming back into his seat.

‘Don’t call Lucy helpless!’ He shouted, his protective instinct flaring up, as it always did, when someone spoke bad of her.

‘Idiot,’ said Virgo, putting a mug of beer in front of Jurah.

‘I didn’t. I asked if you thought she would be helpless without you here to protect her,’ he said, sipping his beer. ‘Lucy had nothing when the guild abandoned her so, after she healed, she focussed on her magic. She was always quite gifted. I would have argued that she was the most powerful Celestial Wizard in all of Fiore, and that was during the Grand Magic Games. Now? Now, I’d argue for her place among the Wizard Saints.’

Natsu felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Well, he’d been punched in the stomach several times today but, this time, he felt his lungs stop. And his chest hurt.

‘After the guild abandoned her? Wait! After she healed? They said I left her to die. Why do they hate me?’

Natsu was confused and distressed and angry and hurt and so many other things all at once. The only thing keeping him calm was the key that Lucy gave him two years ago. It was warm and smelled like Igneel. It rested against his chest, hanging from a short chain and concealed by his scarf so no one would think to steal it. It reminded him so much of Igneel. Jurah groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘You really have no idea, do you?’ he asked, levelling a piercing glare at Natsu.

Natsu shook his head. Sighing, Jurah slid his beer across the table.

‘You’re going to need that,’ he said, taking a deep breath as Happy flew back in with a large fish.

‘Natsu! I found a big one!’ he yelled, excited over his catch.

He caught onto the mood fast, though, and sat quietly with his fish in his lap.

‘You already know that you left Lucy in the hospital. What you don’t know is that she was never treated for her injuries,’ he put his hand up, silencing Natsu when he would have started yelling. ‘Just wait until the end, Natsu. Fairy Tail took a lot of the blame for the Tartaros attack. People lost loved ones and businesses; people lost their homes, the city was a mess and Lucy was the only member of Fairy Tail left to be angry at.’

‘No, she wasn’t! I’m the only one who left!’

‘No, you weren’t. Every single member of Fairy Tail left that night. Makarov disbanded the guild and everyone went their separate ways. You were the only one who bothered to go to the hospital. Your note hurt her more than you can ever know. No one bothered to say good bye to her. No one wanted her to go with them. She was left behind, abandoned by yet another family. But we can discuss that later.’

‘You bet your arse we’ll discuss it later. I’m not done trying to beat him to death yet,’ growled Loke, sitting two tables over with a furious Capricorn and Virgo.

Wisely, for once, Natsu decided not to respond.

‘Let’s get back on topic,’ said Jurah, bringing Natsu back to attention. ‘Everyone in Magnolia hated Lucy, and none of the doctors and nurses wanted to treat someone they viewed as a monster. She was wasting away, literally on the brink of death, when she was rescued by Yukino. Lucy’s spirits were completely drained by the fight against Tartaros. It took about two weeks for Loke to gain enough energy to find Libra in the spirit world and tell her what was happening. Libra rushed to Yukino and all of Sabretooth stormed the hospital to rescue Lucy. Yukino nearly died. The only way to save Lucy was for Yukino to share her power, but Lucy needed so much magical energy just to keep her heart beating that it almost killed Yukino before they managed to find Porliusica. She was within a few minutes of death, and you’re welcome to confirm that with Porliusica.’

Natsu felt sick. Worse than motion sickness. He ran outside, buried his face in the bushes and threw up what felt like everything he’d ever eaten. No one followed him, which he was grateful for.

He stayed there until the shaking stopped. Until he stopped feeling cold. COLD! A fire dragon who felt cold! But this was a new kind of cold. It came from his very soul.

_What have I done?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Frustrated** , as usual, Lucy sat quietly in her meeting with the Mayor of Magnolia.

The Mayor was only focussed on his position and often tried to use Lucy as his ticket to re-election. 

He spent most of his time telling the people that she worked for him. Little did he know that he worked for Lucy. Through him she had access to various branches of high government, including the lower ranks of the Magic Council where all the juicy gossip was.

Right now, however, they were discussing a string of attacks on town banks and weapons storage facilities and the Mayor was becoming damn near hysterical.

‘They’re getting closer! What are we supposed to do?!’

Honestly, for an elected leader of the people, the man was a coward. He’s happy when he’s making money for filling out some paperwork, but the moment it gets a little tricky he panics and looks for everyone else to solve his problems.

‘We still have no direct evidence that these instances are connected and even less evidence that it is a dark guild that is responsible,’ Commander Romi, the leader of his branch of Royal Knights, calmly explained.

‘They’re moving in a direct line to Magnolia!’ the Mayor screeched, pointing to the map.

‘Just calm down,’ Lucy finally spoke, exasperated and, quite frankly, bored. ‘For a start, those attacks began near Crocus, a much more likely target for any attack that would send any significant message. And secondly, why would they bother coming to Magnolia? Fairy Tail isn’t here so there’s no target and, more importantly for everyone else, without Fairy Tail there is no one to blame for the inevitable government cause behind all this in the first place.’

The knights cough and groan, some disguising laughter.

‘We have discussed this already, Miss Heartfilia, and I don’t wish to discuss it again,’ the Mayor growled.

‘There is nothing to discuss, Mr Mayor. You can’t argue facts,’ she replied, watching him turn an interesting shade of purple.

‘If we could get back to the topic at hand,’ Romi pointedly got the Mayor back on track. ‘At present, there is no reason to worry. The last attack happened a very long way from here and the Royal Knights have been stationed all over Fiore in preparation for future attacks. We’ll know more soon enough but, until then, there is no reason to panic the public.’

‘Agreed.’

Lucy stood and prepared to leave but was halted by a shrill voice.

‘No! Why can’t you do it?!’ The Mayor accused. ‘You’re powerful and you’ve done it before. Why can’t you just go and find them?!’

Lucy’s power flared with anger, her body glowing as her spirits’ did when they had been angered. Some things just can’t be helped.

‘As usual, everyone wants to turn to a Fairy Tail Wizard. Tell me, Mayor, what would happen if I did?’

‘Um, ah, hmm…’

He turned to Commander Romi, who just shook his head and stared him down. It seemed the Mayor had put his foot in it with him, too.

‘Nothing?’

‘You’re already doing nothing, Mayor. Occasionally I find myself thinking of you as a decent Mayor, but you prove your cowardice every time you are expected to step up. Let me tell you what you will do if I go and find these criminals myself.’

Intimidated and clearly regretting the fact that he opened his mouth, the Mayor sat back down and waited for Lucy to continue.

‘You will claim responsibility for my actions. You will use me to boost your own reputation. You will continue to tell people that I work for you,’ he cringed. ‘Oh yes, Mr Mayor, did you think that would go unnoticed? But more importantly, once you’re done elevating yourself to stoke your ego and bolster votes, you will then condemn me for any damages done during battle and spout how destructive I am. You will use me and then condemn me, a disturbing pattern that has followed Fairy Tail since the day it was founded. What you fail to recognise is that Fairy Tail no longer exists and I no longer need to accept job requests. Have a good day, Mr Mayor.’

Lucy, having learned how to put ‘authority figures’ in their place over the years, left before she could disabuse the mayor of a few more notions. The Mayor would think twice before presuming to force her to do his job again. 

* * *

**She’d** felt his power in the meeting, but it became almost overwhelming as she neared the guild. Her spirits were leaking energy, not bothering to control themselves. She knew he was inside and that her spirits were doing what they could to avoid killing him.

She stepped inside and froze, noticing the destruction. The bar, a wall, a few tables, all reduced to splinters. But that was easily fixed. With a wave of her hand the bar began to reverse, the furniture coming back together until the bar was whole again.

The Arc of Time may be dangerous to master in it’s entirety, but learning a few spells had been phenomenally time and cost effective. No need to waste money and wait for repairs when a flick of the wrist would handle it in seconds.

Lucy had Ultear to thank for that. Now a frail old woman because of her sacrifice during the Dragon War in Crocus, she lived on the outskirts of Magnolia and was eager to teach Lucy the smaller, safer, aspects of time magic. Ultear was determined that the rest of the Arc of Time die with her, but she still rejoiced in passing down the small things.

‘Care to explain,’ she demanded, levelling a glare at everyone in the room.

Lunch service was over, so it was just her spirits, Jurah and Natsu - who was staring at her with a sadness that he didn’t deserve.

‘We had a visitor and we didn’t like it,’ growled Virgo, levelling her own lethal glare at Natsu.

‘I can see that,’ she ignored Natsu, turning instead to Jurah. ‘Afternoon Jurah, what can I help you with?’

Jurah tried to hide his smirk but failed.

‘Nothing. I was in the area and decided to stop in. Had to explain a few things to our guest here,’ he slyly added Natsu back to the discussion. ‘But it’s been a rather interesting visit.’

‘I think you’re mistaken, Jurah. We don’t have a guest.’

And she walked upstairs to her office, not saying a word to Natsu as she passed.

Lucy could hear him lingering on the stairs as Jurah walked into her office and closed the door.

Loke was already there, having _poofed_ from the bar to her office once she’d started up the steps. He shrugged when she glared at him.

‘The damage was minimal, and he is still breathing,’ he exhaled heavily, as though exhausted by his own restraint. ‘As far as I’m concerned, we went easy on him.’

* * *

**Natsu** was dumbfounded. Truly speechless. She acted like he didn’t exist!

And her magic! Did she use the Arc of Time? When did she learn that? HOW did she learn it?! The only person he’d ever met who used it was Ultear, and she was dead!

And she felt so powerful. Natsu hadn’t noticed when they met at the Grand Magic Games, but he could now. Her power had grown so much. She felt just as powerful as Jurah. Maybe more.

He tried to listen to Lucy and Jurah through the door, but she must have spelled it against eavesdropping. So, he sat at the top of the stairs, waiting.

It was almost an hour before the door opened and Jurah walked back out. A look of pity fell over his face as he noticed Natsu, and he sat down beside him.

‘Give her time, Natsu. She has been hurt in ways you can’t understand and has no room in her heart for forgiveness right now,’ he said, his eyes on the floor below them.

‘What do I do?’ Natsu asked, hanging his head. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘You wait. You can’t fix this overnight, and she doesn’t trust you.’

Jurah noticed the pain that Natsu was in, but he didn’t need or deserve his mercy. He needed honesty, no matter what it did to him.

‘She was left alone, Natsu. And not just alone, but alone and left to die. You abandoned her. The whole guild did. You know what her life was like before she met you that day in Hargeon, Natsu. Fairy Tail was her family. I think you need to stay now, leaving may be what she wants, but if you leave you will only prove to her that you can’t be trusted and that you don’t care.’

‘So, your advice is to do the opposite of what she wants me to do?’

Natsu didn’t understand. How would ignoring her wishes help?

‘Natsu, how are you supposed to earn her trust if you aren’t here?’

‘Oh.’

‘Yes. Oh. You can’t repair your relationship with her if you leave again.’

Jurah stood and walked away, leaving Natsu to sit and stew in his own thoughts.

‘Do you think the others will come home, too?’

Natsu was so deep in thought that he didn’t even notice Happy landing on his head.

‘I hope so, Happy. It doesn’t feel right without them.’

* * *

**Natsu** sat on the stairs until he was forced to realise that Lucy was not coming out.

‘Come on, Happy. We need to find somewhere to stay,’ he said, swinging Happy up to sit on his shoulder.

‘Do you think our house is okay?’

Natsu hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t gone back to his cabin before he left. Everything he needed was at Lucy’s house.

‘I don’t know Happy, but we’ll go have a look.’

To Natsu’s complete shock, the cabin looked perfect. Like it had just been built. Even the damage that was there before Tartaros had been repaired. He opened the door and stepped inside a room that was dust free and glowing in the afternoon sunlight.

‘Someone has been living in our house!’ Happy yelled, going into the one small bedroom at the back. ‘The bed is made!’

‘Of course, it is, you idiots.’

Natsu’s flames burst from his hands as he jumped around, startled because he hadn’t heard or smelled anyone sneak up behind him.

‘Loke!’

‘Lucy bought all the available land near the Guild Hall and had people repair your house. She even rebuilt Fairy Hills. Here,’ he threw a key at Natsu, smacking him in the forehead.

Natsu didn’t bother complaining. He deserved it.

‘Why did she do that?’

After everything he’d heard today, he truly believed that Lucy hated him. So, why would she repair his cabin?

‘Your note said you’d be back in a year, so she made sure you’d have a home when you did. She lost all hope when that year was up and you didn’t come back.’

And he disappeared again, leaving Natsu feeling as though shards of ice were piercing his heart. He'd never felt so shattered.

Not even when Igneel left.

At least when that happened, he had hope and a way to eventually find him again. But what he’d done to Lucy? He wasn’t so sure that it could be fixed. How could anyone make up for something like that?

‘Natsu?’ Happy tapped Natsu on the shoulder to get his attention. ‘We should go get some firewood.’

Natsu just nod his head and followed his little blue friend into the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

**‘What’s** he playing at?’ Loke growled to Lucy, glaring at the table in the corner.

Natsu did the same thing every day, and every day her and Loke had the same conversation.

He sat in the bar with a drink and chatted with Happy and the townspeople. Lucy could feel his eyes on her as she sat at the bar and knew that he was waiting for an opportunity to talk to her.

‘He’s waiting to see if I’ll forgive him, Loke,’ Lucy replied, not bothering to look up from her work.

Her Spirits had been making frequent comments since Natsu’s abrupt return and she was yet to get used to it.

She fought to stop herself from staring.

She didn’t know what she wanted, but each time she snuck a glance in his direction she found herself disappointed. She wanted him to stay and she wanted him to leave and she wanted those things almost equally.

A commotion at the door drew her attention from the paperwork on the bar.

Natsu had jumped up from the table and tackled someone at the door. She saw a shock of blonde hair before a blast of lightning shoved Natsu back into a wall.

Her heart froze in her chest as the new group walked in like they owned the place.

Laxus, the Thunder Legion and the Strauss siblings were beaming as they stepped into the hall and Natsu and Happy were jumping around like rabbits on a sugar high.

‘You came!’

Even Laxus was laughing and hugging Happy.

Lucy couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, her body gone numb.

‘Lucy, maybe you should go to your office? Your power is building, and you might hurt the customers,’ Loke spoke softly, pulling her out of her paralysis. 

And he was right. Reining in her magic, she picked up her paperwork and all but ran up the stairs.

* * *

**It** had worked! Natsu didn’t know how he’d gotten out of trouble for what he’d done to the palace, but his plan had been a success. They’d seen it and they had come home.

Mira wrapped Natsu in one of the tightest hugs of his life and everyone else piled on until he was crushed under the weight of the whole group.

‘NATSU!’

They shouted and cheered and Happy was pulled into the fray by Lisanna who started crying as she crushed him to her chest.

The fun ended as quickly as it began.

Capricorn pulled them all off each other and Loke kicked them out of the Guild Hall. Natsu’s mood turned glacial at the abrupt reminder of his failure. He had gotten so caught up in his excitement that he had forgotten that Lucy was at the bar watching.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?!’ Laxus shouted, sparks coming from his fingertips as he glared at Loke.

‘Getting you the hell out of the bar. You’re not welcome here.’

And the doors slammed in their faces. Power flared and he watched Mira become the She-Devil.

‘How rude!’

Natsu stopped her with a hand on her shoulder as she moved toward the doors.

‘No. Just let them be. I have a lot to tell you.’

He led them to the beach behind the guild and sat down. From their scents he knew that a lot had changed. Mira and Laxus were together and so were Evergreen and Elfman and Lisanna and Bixlow.

Freed was the only single guy left in the group, but his scent said that he was happy.

‘What’s wrong Natsu?’

He looked at Laxus, not really knowing where to begin.

‘I got back in time for the last day of the Grand Magic Games, that’s where I met Lucy again. She was a judge.’

That alone made them sit up and pay attention. They don’t just choose anyone to be on the judging panel at the GMG. He continued his tale, pausing as his guilt tried to suffocate him as he spoke of what had happened to Lucy after Tartaros.

‘How did you find out?’

Laxus’ sounded like he was in pain, but he held it together like his usually haughty self.

‘Jurah. Apparently, Lucy threw herself into training when she’d healed. He says she’s strong enough to be a Wizard Saint now.’

‘Seriously?!’ Bixlow was shocked to his core. Cheerleader as a Wizard Saint? He couldn’t see it.

‘I doubt Makarov knows. If he knew he wouldn’t have disbanded the guild and none of us would have left,’ whispered Mira, but she didn’t sound convinced.

‘None of us would know,’ added Freed. ‘None of us even thought about Lucy when we were leaving.’

‘I did,’ the confession exploded out of Natsu’s mouth. ‘I-I just thought she was asleep. I left a note saying I’d be back in a year.’

He hung his head in his hands, the key against his chest heating against his skin.

‘And it’s been over two years,’ whispers Lisanna.

‘Two years, four months and eighteen days,’ he growled to himself. ‘I worked it out.’

They sat in silence for a time, the afternoon sun beating down on them but none of them willing to find shade.

‘Well, it’s simple then. We need to convince her that we’re worth forgiving,’ Lisanna said, oozing optimism.

‘You don’t know Lucy,’ Natsu snorted. ‘Half the time she still hates her own Father, and he’s not even alive anymore.’

‘I thought her and Jude made up,’ says Mira.

‘On the surface, maybe. But a lifetime of misery and abuse doesn’t just go away.’

‘Abuse? I don’t really know anything about her life before Fairy Tail,’ Evergreen confessed.

‘Probably because we never bothered to ask,’ growled Laxus. ‘I didn’t care back then, not after I found out she was a damn Heiress.’

‘Ha! Do you know why her Father sent Phantom Lord after her in the first place?’

They shake their heads.

‘He had a contract worked out for her marriage. He sold Lucy to the highest bidder and made a deal that she would have sons with some strange old, rich guy she’s never met before. She wasn’t an Heiress, she was a business arrangement.’

Their faces blanched and Natsu stood up to pace. Talking about Lucy’s life always infuriated him. 

Another wave of guilt assailed him as he realised he may have just betrayed Lucy all over again - if they didn’t know about her past then it’s probably because she didn’t want them to. He took a deep breath and brought his temper to heel.

‘Come on. It’s almost dinner service. They won’t kick us out and make a scene when there are customers. Just, don’t expect to actually be served.’

* * *

**They’d** been at the Guild Hall for over an hour and they still hadn’t seen Lucy. She was obviously avoiding them, but there was probably a pile of paperwork that would provide a convenient excuse.

‘Well, you guys are brave I’ll give you that.’

Jurah came into the bar and sat at the end of their table. Taurus came over immediately and handed him a beer, making sure to kick the chair out from under Natsu as he walked away. Natsu said nothing as he set his chair to rights and sat his sore butt back down.

‘So, are you all coming back or is this just a coincidence?’

‘Uh,’ Natsu stalled, suddenly uncomfortable. ‘I may have left a signal in Crocus for the Guild.’

‘A signal?’ Jurah arched a knowing brow at Natsu.

‘I might have burned the Fairy Tail Guild Mark into the side of the Royal Palace,’ he mumbled.

‘Ah, yes, I read something about that. Have you figured out why the Rune Knights haven’t arrested you yet?’

Jurah was obviously trying to lead him somewhere, but Natsu couldn’t figure it out. He was fully aware of the others listening with avid interest, clearly holding out for some new information about Lucy. Jurah groaned.

‘If I keep giving handing out information on a silver platter then Lucy’s spirits are going to stop talking to me as well,’ he mumbled to himself and heaved a sigh. ‘Lucy paid for the palace repairs. She still holds the Kings’ favour and is friends with Princess Hisui so she offered to pay off the damages to keep you out of prison.’

Natsu nearly fell off his chair on his own this time.

‘She _payed_! Where did she get that kind of money?’

Natsu was completely shocked – yes, about the money – but because she clearly hated him, but she still covered his ass when he did something dumb.

‘This is the same Lucy who was constantly terrified of not paying her rent, right?’

Lisanna and the others were just as surprised.

‘I told you – a lot has changed in the last two years. An investigation uncovered that her Father’s businesses had been bought illegally and, since he is no longer living, everything was reversed and given to Lucy as the rightful heir to his fortune. She kept her family estate, but she re-sold all the other businesses and properties and is now one of the wealthiest women in Fiore. That’s how she bought the Guild Hall back from the city and she paid for most of the cities repairs, as well.’

‘What a wonderful thing for Lucy.’

This time, Natsu did fall out of his chair. The person who spoke was none other than little Wendy, closely followed by Erza, Jellal and Carla.

Cue another pile on, this time ended by Erza who threw everyone off her and shoved them back into their seats. Carla even gave Happy a hug…before he passed out on the table.

* * *

**The** next few days were hell for Lucy. A constant stream of her former guild mates kept her busy, forcing her to use secret passageways and travelling through the spirit world to get where she needed to go. Avoidance was the name of her game and she was determined to play it well.

Gray had tried to block her path in a hallway a few days ago, but he learned quickly enough to just let her be. They were all trying to catch her unawares; trying to ‘accidentally’ bump into her and have a chat.

She’d given up hiding yesterday and had taken her regular stool back at the bar to read through reports and consult with Loke. He’d never admit it, but he really enjoyed working the bar and it wasn’t fair for Lucy to keep dragging him away from what he enjoyed just because she didn’t want to mingle with the new patrons.

She could feel their eyes on her, could watch in her peripheral as they went to stand or tried to speak and then turned away from her, hopefully knowing that it was better to leave her alone to work at the bar in peace.

The reports across Fiore were becoming more and more worrying, the thefts from weapons stores and magical facilities happening more frequently and becoming more violent. It wouldn’t be long before the council put in personal requests for mages to try and sort it out as the Royal Knights and other law enforcement authorities were having no luck at all. One of the guards had died during the last theft which would add far more urgency to the hunt for the rogues committing these crimes.

‘Looks like they’re ramping up to something a lot more serious than theft,’ said Loke looking over the reports as he poured a drink at her end of the bar.

‘Mm,’ she absentmindedly swirled her straw though her strawberry and vanilla milkshake. ‘It’s well past the point that anyone can deny that these crimes are connected.’

‘You need more information. There’s a lot of magic power in Magnolia and I wouldn’t put it past them to come here at some point. We may not have a vast stock of military grade weaponry, but we’re a magical hub for wizards across Fiore.’

‘I agree. They’ll come here eventually but I have already put protections in place.’

‘When did you do that? I didn’t even notice.’

‘After my last meeting with the Mayor. I could see a pattern emerging, but not enough to warrant a military presence, so I placed a magical barrier around Magnolia.’

‘Do you think a barrier will be enough if they decide to show up here?’

‘The barrier lets me know when anyone with violent intent crosses the border and allows me to find the individual and remove them from the city, but I will have some spirits set up a patrol to make sure we notice any groups trying to cross the border.’

‘I’ll arrange a schedule with the others.’

‘We’ll send out Virgo and Capricorn to start. Virgo can monitor from underground and Capricorn’s analytic mind will make short work of all statistically probable locations for infiltration.’

He disappeard in a golden flash, returning minutes later with a nod to let her know it had been done.

‘Umm, Lucy?’

A small voice drew her attention to her right where she found Wendy looking apprehensive and uncomfortable.

‘I’m sorry to interrupt,’ she started when she’d caught Lucy’s attention. ‘Uh, um, I hope it’s okay, but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation – I’m so sorry, I promise that I wasn’t doing it deliberately, but my ears are a lot more sensitive now and uh, sorry.’

She paused to collect herself, her cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

‘Umm. I just wanted to ask if there was anything I could do to help.’

‘No, there isn’t.’

Even Lucy knew that her tone was awful but, before she had a chance to apologise, her shoulders slumped and she shuffled off with a muffled ‘Oh, okay.’

She flashed a guilty look at Loke, but he was very much on the side of cold-heartedness when it came to any and all of Fairy Tail’s former members. She agreed with him, but she was never one for needless cruelty and unfortunately that’s what she had just thrown at Wendy.

She would prefer cold indifference to rudeness.

* * *

**Wendy** came back to the table surrounded by the scent of sadness.

‘What’s wrong, Wendy?’ 

Natsu couldn’t help but become defensive. Wendy had left the table in perfectly high spirits and returned drenched in the scent of hurt.

‘It’s okay, Natsu. Lucy was just a little brisk with me is all. I overheard her conversation with Loke and asked if there was anything I could do to help.’

She flashed a watery smile and went back to munching on her fries, all be it with much less enthusiasm.

‘Is Lucy in some kind of trouble?’

Erza’s expression was fierce, thinking that someone or something was threatening Lucy.

‘No. I’m not sure it would be polite to tell you what I heard. I wasn’t even supposed to hear it, so it wouldn’t be right. Right?’

‘If she’s in trouble and we can help then, no, I don’t think it would be. Are you comfortable telling us?’

Wendy nod at Erza and everyone perked up to listen.

‘From what I heard, Lucy is tracking a group of rogue wizards, possibly a dark guild, who have been travelling all over Fiore stealing weapons and magic. They killed a guard during their last theft. It sounds like Lucy thinks they’re on their way to Magnolia.’

‘Yes,’ Erza nods. ‘I heard of some thefts in my travels but did not know that they were connected. Why is Lucy tracking them? That should be a job for the Rune Knights.’

Jurah, sitting silently at the end of the table until then, groaned and glared.

‘Did you not listen when I told you how powerful Lucy has become? Her strength and her friendship with Princess Hisui make her the first port of call for both the Crown and the Council when something dangerous is happening. She has so far refused to take care of these rogues herself because it has been the Mayor of Magnolia who has been demanding that she go and do it, but she keeps herself informed for when the King will inevitably ask her to step in.’

Jurah’s disappointed and disapproval glared into everyone at the table and made them all cringe.

‘You need to stop seeing Lucy as the girl you left behind and recognise her as the powerful woman she has become. I struggle to keep pace with her when we spar, and I am a Wizard Saint. Not to mention that I know for a fact that she tempers her power and holds back enough to ensure she cannot seriously harm me when we fight.’

It is not every day that a Wizard Saint admits to someone being more powerful than they are. Even Laxus was impressed and he was a hard man to gain approval from. Natsu was yet to gain that approval for himself.

‘Would she agree to spar with us?’ Erza all but vibrated with excitement at the prospect of fighting against Lucy.

‘I wouldn’t try it,’ Virgo cut in, dropping a veggie burger in front of Jurah and taking his empty glass. ‘She can barely stand to look at you, let alone spar with you and even if she did, she would annihilate you. Protect yourself and don’t bother asking. She would deliver the most torturous punishment.’

And Virgo sauntered off with a lustful expression, biting her lip at the thought of Lucy punishing Erza.

‘Well, I suppose that settles it,’ Wendy whispered.

‘Nah,’ Laxus drained his beer. ‘I have to have a chat with Blondie. If Lucy kills me, give my stuff to Mira.’


	5. Chapter 5

**Lucy** knew someone was coming back to her place at the bar and wanted to jump through a Celestial gate then and there. She had expected that it might be someone coming to yell at her about being mean to Wendy, but she could feel no aggression in Laxus’ aura as he moved to the bar and took the seat next to her.

‘I’m not gunna stay long Lucy, I just thought you’d want some information on the guys you’re hunting. I can’t be a hundred percent certain, but I might have fought them last month as I made my way through Bosco. I was working a job and I came across them just after nightfall as they tried to break into a guard tower. Their insignia is a coiled snake.’

He got up to leave but she couldn’t let him go. This had been her first solid lead in months, and she was going to milk it for all it was worth.

‘Come to my office.’

* * *

**Lucy** didn’t see it, but Laxus threw a shocked and slightly panicked glance back to the table, not missing the shaking shoulders and hidden smirk on Jurah’s face before he turned to follow Lucy up the stairs.

The office was entirely different to how it was when his grandfather was using it.

_Actually, where is the old guy? I figured he’d be the first one back when Natsu lit the palace on fire._

Lucy had obviously rebuilt the guild and had made a lot of improvements, apparently including the office sizes. The whole back wall was built of glass, giving an extraordinary view of the coastline behind the guild.

‘Here,’ Lucy tossed a notepad onto the desk and motioned for Laxus to take a seat. ‘Write down everything you remember from the fight and try and sketch the insignia for me. I want to know in as much detail as you remember what the members of the group looked like and what their powers were. How strong were they, how confident? What tactics did they use? Did they move as a trained infiltration unit or a bunch of nobodies thrown together in chaos and fighting for themselves.’

He nodded and got to work. An hour later and he was handing back an almost full notepad with such detailed descriptions that he had even provided the approximate notes in each of the offending mage’s scents.

He was going to leave, but his instincts said this was an opportunity to get into Lucy’s good graces. Not as a former friend and guild mate, but as an informant and asset.

‘I’ll keep an eye out for anyone I recognise, but you should talk with everyone else as well. It seems we’ve been travelling all over the place and you never know what they might have seen or heard while they were gone.’

It took great effort for him to finish speaking, the look overtaking Lucy’s eyes something that would melt the kidneys clean out of a regular person. It wasn’t just the rage. He could see it clear as day, but only in her eyes. Her expression and body language were unreadable, but her eyes spoke volumes and he nearly buckled under the weight of Lucy’s pain.

He swallowed thickly, stamping out the urge to try and explain why they had all left, why they hadn’t known that she was alone, but he controlled himself and left with a casual nod.

They were anxiously waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, Loke guarding the bottom step like the vicious defender he would always be for Lucy.

* * *

**Lucy** took a deep breath and fell heavily into her chair, her knees finally buckling under the strain of trying desperately to keep them from shaking. 

She tried to fool herself into thinking it was just exhaustion, but it’s hard to believe a lie when you’re the one who made it up. She knew it was dropping her shields long enough to talk to Laxus that had made her weak.

It took a moment, but she managed to bury her heart beneath a pile of emotional indifference and read through his notes. Laxus’ mind must be a steel trap to remember so much detail. He even wrote down the exact scents of everyone he encountered. Even she had to admit that it was impressive.

Remembering the pile of reports still on the bar, Lucy took the book full of Laxus’ notes and made her way back downstairs to see if she could match her new information to any of the new reports.

Cancer came over the moment her butt hit the barstool.

‘Just to remind you that we have our Sabretooth friends on the way, Baby.’

‘Thanks Cancer, I’ll stay here to greet them.’

She had indeed forgotten that Sabretooth was coming to check in today. They liked to term them ‘Fortnightly Catch-ups’ but Lucy had seen through that farce during their first visit. Though she’d like to be annoyed with them, and she kept them at arm’s length, she couldn’t help but be grateful to them.

She’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Sabretooth.

She had briefly considered joining Sabretooth once Porliusica was done torturing her into wellness (should Porlisuica ever recommend she do more physical therapy she would run fast and far) but she couldn’t bring herself to accept another guild mark on her skin or become part of another family.

She’d had two families abandon her already, she wasn’t in the market for a third.

Nevertheless, she appreciated that they still came to visit, even if it was to baby her and make sure she was still functioning properly. Yukino at least understood boundaries. Rogue, Sting and Minerva all but inspected the support beams to make sure Lucy was physically safe inside the building. Overprotective was an understatement and it took great effort for Lucy to remain somewhat friendly – or whatever that looked like on Lucy now – when they got on a roll about her health.

It amused her spirits to no end to be peppered with questions like:

‘Has she eaten today and was it a nutritious meal?’

‘Has she been exercising? Making sure to get out of the guild?’

‘Has she smiled today’

Her spirits, at least, could adore Sabretooth for caring.

* * *

**‘Come** on Natsu, a much we all love Lucy we can’t deny how much she has changed. She’s wearing jeans,’ Gray argued, refusing to agree with Natsu that their Lucy was still in there somewhere.

Erza was saddened by this, too. Her memories of Lucy all involved bright colours and a mini skirt. Girls, Erza knew from experience, would change their clothing when they changed themselves and Lucy’s clothes had always been bubbly and fun. Her footwear often entirely impractical and her clothing offering no physical protection, but they were as much a part of Lucy as Erza’s armour was a part of her or Cana’s bikini was a part of Cana.

It’s not the most shocking change that Erza had noticed in Lucy, but the black jeans, black knee-high boots and dark blue vest covered in golden stars were a far cry from the Lucy she used to know.

Though Erza would never mention it. She thought her new attire was far more practical and offered many more places to secret weapons and magical items in battle.

It just…wasn’t Lucy.

Although Erza’s body language was relaxed, her mind was focussed, and she repositioned herself so she could easily stand and fight, offering a slight nod to Mira who who sat up a little straighter, noticing the same thing she had.

A mass of magical energy was rapidly approaching the guild hall.

* * *

**Natsu** relaxed and motioned for the others to do the same a moment before the doors were swung open and a group of people walked inside. He had recognised the magical signatures of his fellow Dragon Slayers, Sting and Rogue, just in time to stop everyone from taking a defensive position inside the door.

‘Hey guys!’

His excitement at seeing them became shock as a surprisingly small fist connected with his nose and he flew back from his seat. Yukino – tiny, sweet and lovely Yukino – had planted one right in the centre of his face before she doubled over, a round of violent coughing sending tremors through her tiny frame.

‘Hey, stay with me Yuki. Take a seat and breath deep for me.’

To Natsu’s shock – and the shock of everyone else at the table – Lucy had rushed over in a literal flash (as in a flash of Golden Celestial Light) and taken hold of Yukino before even Sting could get to her, and Sting had been standing just behind her.

‘I’m okay Luce, I just needed to get that off my chest,’ Yukino wheezed, glaring daggers around their table.

‘If you keep this up, you’ll cough up one of these lungs and I’m sure that’s something you don’t need off your chest,’ Lucy berated continued to berate Yukino. 

‘I’m okay, Lucy.’

The old Lucy would have argued, fluttering around Yukino until she was completely healed, but this Lucy just gave a stiff nod and stood back up.

‘You are stronger than the last time I saw you.’

Yukino beamed at Lucy’s praise, standing on wobbly feet and holding onto Sting.

‘I have to refine it a bit and see how it can work best for me, but the idea you had for healing has been working. I’ve had much more magical energy and my body has been able to start strengthening itself. I haven’t needed the wheelchair or crutches in about a week!’

Natsu was relieved to hear that Yukino was getting better, but it still begged the question of what the hell happened to her in the first place!

‘Come on, we’ll set up at the bar and catch up.’

‘We sure as hell will,’ Sting and Rogue growled together – proper almost-in-Dragon-Force type growling – and Lector and Frosche grabbed the hem of their pants to help drag them to the bar.

Natsu was unapologetic about his eavesdropping when they sat down and ordered a round of drinks. And neither Sting nor Rogue gave a shit about what they knew Natsu would be hearing.

* * *

**‘Don’t** mind them,’ Lucy said as she took a seat, waiting for the twin Dragon Slayers to take their slitted pupils off Natsu. ‘I certainly don’t.’

‘Why are they here?’ Sting growled, helping Yukino onto the bar stool and moving himself closer to her side just in case she needed to lean against him.

Lucy made a note to buy bar stools with chair backs so Yukino wouldn’t have to exhaust herself trying to stay upright on the backless ones.

‘Natsu showed up during the GMG Finals. You know that, you were there. Apparently, he has decided to reform the guild and bring everyone back,’ Lucy explained, not bothering to lower her volume so Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus and Wendy wouldn’t be able to here.

‘They don’t deserve to be here,’ growled Minerva, gripping Rogue’s hand so hard his fingertips had turned white.

‘They seem determined to stay. They’ve been taking a beating from my spirits since they arrived and so far, haven’t bothered to leave.’

‘I can guess why,’ Yukino scoffed, her breath having returned to normal and some colour returning to her cheeks. ‘They want you to forgive them or something, right?’

Neither of them reacted when the Twin Dragons and the Demon started to growl.

‘If you’re going to start a fight then at least take it outside. We’re about to start the lunch service and our customers deserve to eat in peace.’

That was all they needed, Sting having picked up Yukino in a bridal carry and Rogue and Minerva marching over to her former guild mates with lethal determination.

‘Outside. Now,’ Minerva yelled, not even bothering to see if they followed.

When only Natsu, Gray and Erza got up, Rogue used his shadows to pull the chairs from beneath all of them and growled: ‘The lot of you!’

Lucy simply rolled her eyes and cast a spell that would allow her to watch the exchange through a Celestial Gate to keep an eye on the damages.

* * *

**Sting** was all but vibrating with rage as he stomped into the training field behind the guild hall. He wasn’t surprised that Jurah had followed them, probably hoping to stop him if anything got out of hand. Why Jurah was here at all was a non-issue for Sting in that very moment, allowing himself to hone his rage to a razor point and aim it square at Fairy Tail’s former members.

He gingerly placed Yukino on a plush outdoor chair and was about to unleash hell when he felt her pull on his hand.

‘Don’t hurt them too badly yet, okay? We don’t know why they left and for all we know there was a legitimate reason.’

Sting knew that not even Yukino believed what she’d just said, but he knew she needed to say it – knew she needed to at least try and be reasonable about confronting this group of traitors.

‘Alright, Love,’ he kissed the tip of her nose before he went to join Rogue and Minerva in the centre of the training field.

* * *

**‘Explanations**. Now,’ Rogue demanded, crossing his arms over his chest to restrain his own hands before he could wrap them around one of their necks. ‘You can start with why you left Lucy to die.’

He was satisfied when they all flinched back, faces crumbling under the weight of guilt and pain.

‘We didn’t know. It’s not an explanation or an excuse, but we didn’t know,’ Natsu said, voice constricted, making Rogue want to rip his face off.

‘And you didn’t think to check?! After everything she did for us that day, after everything she sacrificed, was she so worthless to you?!’

Rogue knew Sting was on the verge of losing it. It was bad enough for them to see Lucy hurt, but Sting got a double whammy when saving Lucy meant that he almost lost Yukino. Rogue would have spoken up, but Minerva picked up where Sting left off.

‘She’s the only reason any of us are alive! I’m fully aware of my sins and my actions where it comes to Tartaros, but even I – someone so obsessed with power that she literally became a Demon to gain more – even I find the lot of you to be despicable!’

‘The…the only reason we’re alive?’

It was Levy who asked the question. Levy’s question that sparked the carefully controlled Dragon Force in the Twins and ripped the Demon from Minerva’s carefully controlled cage.

‘YOU DON’T KNOW!’ Rogue roared, held back from the edge by Minerva who somehow still had control of herself.

The Fairies, however, seemed resigned to whatever punishment Sabretooth would deal.

‘Enough.’

The word was softly spoken but laced with enough power to knock the twins out of Dragon Force and lock the cage on Minerva’s Demon.

‘It’s not enough, Lucy,’ Minerva hissed.

‘Maybe so, but if you can not control yourselves then you must leave. My customers are the priority and you will not use your power where they may be harmed. Am I understood?’

Lucy may have spoken in almost bored tones, but it made even Sting flinch and nod his agreement.

‘We’ll take this further onto the beach.’

‘Not the cliffs. If you crack the cliff face, then the hotel on top may be damaged. Take it further toward the dunes.’

And she turned and casually walked inside the guild, no one knowing that she had barely maintained a hold on her own power.

They didn’t need to be told twice, Sting returning to help Yukino and Minerva picking up one of the outdoor chairs to make sure Yukino would be comfortable on the beach.

* * *

**Natsu** wasn’t surprised to know that Sabretooth hated them. After Jurah told him that it was Sabretooth who had saved Lucy he had automatically assumed that any friendship he may have had with them was void.

It was their outburst that terrified him. Not because of their power, but because there was still more that he didn’t know.

_‘THEY DON’T KNOW!’_

The words bounced painfully throughout Natsu’s skull. He didn’t care how much of a beating he had to take; he was going to find out exactly what they were talking about. He wouldn’t even bother fighting back. He would take the punishment willingly. Mavis knew he damn well deserved it.

He didn’t block Sting’s fist as it snapped out and connected with his jaw. Didn’t try to brace his fall or avoid the boulder that he smashed into. Didn’t wince or complain when he came to a stop by slamming ribs first into the side of a jagged rock.

He knew that Minerva had sucker punched Erza and Rogue was all over Gray, but neither Erza nor Gray had bothered to block them either.

‘YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HER FRIENDS!’

Natsu had no problem taking a beating, but he needed it to wait just a few minutes.

He needed to know.   
Natsu blocked Sting’s foot, standing and throwing him back.

‘I have no problem with you kicking my arse for this, I deserve it and I know that, but I need to know what you meant before when you said we didn’t know. When you said that Lucy is the only reason that we’re alive. I won’t block or fight back, you can kick the shit out of me for as long as you want, I don’t care. Just tell me what you meant.’

‘Stand down, Sting!’

Sting just about hit the deck when Yukino yelled at him. She had struggled to her feet and walked over to the brawling group.

‘Yukino, you should be sitting.’

‘Don’t you dare coddle me right now, Sting. You don’t think I’m pissed, too! Now, the lot of you can sit the fuck down!’   
They sat.   
Yukino swore, they sat. It was instinct.

Sting ran for the chair and brought it over to Yukino, sitting in the sand beside the chair and resting a hand on Yukino’s thigh.

‘Now, I’m going to tell you about what truly happened the day we fought Tartaros and there will be no interruptions.’

It would have been a funny sight to anyone who saw them. They sat in a semi-circle in front of Yukino’s chair as if they were kindergarteners sitting around for story time. 


	6. Chapter 6

**When** Yukino was satisfied that she had cowed everyone into silence, she wove her fingers through Sting’s and gripped for dear life, hating to have to tell this story.

‘Mard Geer cast a spell called Alegria that, essentially, turned the Cube into a giant floating stomach that devoured the lot of you. Lucy was the only one that wasn’t trapped inside the curse and the demons went after her. She was desperately trying to fight three of them off while also trying to figure out how to get you all out of the curse, but she was injured and exhausted and her magic energy was almost depleted. She’d managed to call three spirits at once, which is something I’d never heard of until Lucy somehow managed to do it, but it was killing her to keep the gates open.’

Yukino had to stop, clearing her throat and wiping her eyes before she was able to continue.

‘You…you might have noticed that Aquarius isn’t helping at the guild with the other spirits.’

‘I assumed it was because there is no water in the guild,’ Erza said.

‘I told you not to interrupt,’ Yukino snapped, having to compose herself before continuing the story. ‘You also would have noticed the giant man with a massive moustache who destroyed the cube.’

She allowed them to nod.

‘That was the Celestial Spirit King. The ruler of all Celestial beings and the most powerful spirit in the Celestial Realm,’ the gasps and shocked expressions were expected. Not everyone had met him. They clearly hadn’t bothered to find out a damn thing about Lucy’s magic or what she’d done for them that day. ‘Lucy accessed a phenomenal amount of power to summon him to our realm, but summoning the Celestial Spirit King comes at a terrible cost. A wizard may only summon him by destroying the key of their most trusted Zodic Spirit.’

She saw the exact moment that everyone understood what had happened. Faces paled, people cried, they gripped onto one another for support.

_At least they understand exactly how big a sacrifice this was for Lucy,’_ Yukino thought with a lethal satisfaction at the pain they felt at learning this.

‘In order the destroy the cube, save her guild and deal a lethal blow to Tartaros, Lucy sacrificed Aquarius - and almost killed herself - to bring the Celestial Spirit King into the battle. It was Aquarius idea, but that doesn’t make it any less devastating to Lucy - or to Aquarius for that matter – but that isn’t the end of Lucy’s story.’

Yukino squeezed Sting’s hand, letting him take over the story from there.

‘Lucy would have given you three a key,’ he started, pointing to Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy. ‘It probably smells like your dragons; mine certainly smells like Weisslogia.’

The other slayers pulled their keys out of wherever they hid them, Natsu from a chain around his neck.

‘Even though she was on the verge of passing out, heart-broken and had no magical energy left, she couldn’t help but reach out when she felt our dragons dying. Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy would know this already because Lucy gave them their keys, but Lucy reached out to our dragons’ souls and created keys for them. She saved our dragons.’ 

* * *

**Natsu** almost passed out, his mind blank, his body numb.

‘She…Grandeeny is alive?’

Wendy was crying, sobs heaving her tiny body as she hugged the quarts key to her chest. Gajeel was staring at his in awe, a tear landing on the rugged steel key in his hand.

Natsu’s own key was made of lava stone, hot to the touch, and indeed smelled exactly like Igneel.

‘Are you telling me that a Celestial Wizard gave you a key and you didn’t listen to a word she fucking said about it?’

Minerva’s voice was a lethal hiss, her horns sprouting from her temples as she lost a little control of her Demon.

‘I wasn’ hearin’ mucha nothin’ at the time. I was starin’ into space for a while after the dragons died,’ Gajeel muttered, his eyes still locked onto the key in his hand.

‘I couldn’t f-focus on much, either,’ Wendy choked out between sobs. ‘I-I couldn’t stop c-crying.’

Natsu didn’t speak, wondering how he had been such an idiot. If he had bothered to pay any attention in the last two years, he would have noticed the key emanated power in perfect harmony with Lucy’s. The key very much felt like her magic; a warm and comforting golden magic that he had held against his heart since the moment she gave it to him. If he’d only taken a half second to see past the fact that it smelt like Igneel, he would have known what this was immediately. How could he not have known! Celestial Wizards, ESPECIALLY LUCY, don’t just go around handing out KEYS!

Keys are precious to Celestial Wizards.

Natsu, on the other hand, was a complete and utter moron.

‘You can not summon your dragons,’ said Yukino, breaking through Natsu’s stupefied mind. ‘Those keys are seriously powerful, and it takes a ridiculous amount of energy to use them. If you focus your power enough then you should be able to communicate with your dragons, but if you ever try to open their gate you will most likely die.’

‘We can talk to ‘em?’ Gajeel was in awe, a look of pure wonder on his face as he closed his eyes and gripped the key for dear life.

It apparently didn’t work, Gajeel huffing out a breath and loosening his grip on the key a moment later.

‘It will take time. If you had bothered to listen in the first place, then you would have been told all of this two years ago and you wouldn’t have missed out on all this time with your dragons. Have you come to terms with exactly what you threw away when you left?’

Rogue wasn’t prepared to be as kind as Yukino in his wording.

‘You should all come to your senses, because that woman deserves a hell of a lot better than whatever pieces of shit you people turned out to be,’ Rogue growled, holding Froshe to his chest to try and calm himself down.

It was a moment later, when Yukino started coughing again, that everyone seemed to come back to attention. Wendy obviously couldn’t help herself. A sick or injured person would never go untreated when she could potentially help them.

‘Yukino? Is there anything I can do to help?’ Wendy asked, rising on unsteady feet and walking over to Yukino’s chair.

‘No. Lucy is doing her best but I’m afraid I have a very long path to recovery ahead of me.’

‘What happened, if you don’t mind me asking? I might be able to help if I knew what was wrong.’ 

Wendy flinched and stumbled back into Laxus as Sting’s gaze pierced her very soul.

‘Yukino used all her power and almost all of her life force to save Lucy when we learned that she was dying in the hospital. She was regaining her strength when we were jumped by a Dark Guild on the way home. She didn’t have the energy to fight and she took an energy blast to the chest. The blast damaged her lungs and damn near crushed her heart. She can recover, but until then she can’t practice her magic or fight or go on jobs. She can barely walk or breath - ’

‘Enough, Sting,’ Yukino took his hand, rubbing circles into his palm to calm him down.

‘Lucy has my spirits until I am better, but it is a long rehabilitation process. Lucy is sharing her energy with me to hasten the healing, but she can only give me as much as my body can handle and I don’t have all that much strength yet.’ 

Sting wasn’t ready to give up yet, wanting to strike one last blow.

‘You may have left Lucy to die, but you are responsible for what has happened to Yukino as well.’

And they left them on the beach.

* * *

**Lucy** had watched the whole exchange through her Celestial Gate – more of a window, really – and had to go to her office.

They hadn’t even known about the keys. They didn’t listen to a damn thing that day.

Capricorn had come to help calm her from her panic attack, but her heart was racing at a pace even she thought was dangerous as she curled herself into a ball and rolled beneath her desk. She had sent Capricorn away, promising that she would be fine, that she just needed some time alone. She restrained herself from going to the bar to drink away her misery. She had been there and done that and promised her spirits that she wouldn’t use alcohol as a crutch ever again – a Celestial Mage always kept their promises.

So, she just sat in a ball beneath her desk, paying no mind to anything around her. Not her spirits as they came through to check on her, not the reports on her desk or the new information from Laxus.

It wasn’t until after midnight, almost ten hours later, that she pulled herself out of the darkness and got out from under the desk, her body cracking like a glowstick as she stretched her back out.

Midnight was nothing to Lucy for she had barely slept more than three hours a night since she woke up from her coma. Still being wide awake, she decided to get to work helping Yukino. If her idea to funnel energy to Yukino through her current gate keys was working, then it would be more effective to create a key solely designed to transfer magical energy between two willing celestial wizards. The challenge for Lucy was getting around the summoning aspect of the keys.

By their own nature and purpose, a celestial gate key is designed to open a pathway for a celestial being to walk through realms, but these keys needed to be created without that purpose. Not designed to summon something physically to the earthly plain, but to take advantage of a Celestial Wizards ability to access the gates.

She let her mind drift to the issue at hand, not noticing when the sun rose or even caring that the world was awake again and that the bar was preparing for breakfast service.

Not until someone knocked on her door, interrupting her chain of thought and near breakthrough on her current conundrum. 

‘Enter,’ she muttered, hastily scribbling notes so she could come back to that train of thought later.

‘Good Morning.’

Jurah elegantly sat down in one of the comfortable office chairs in front of her, resting a thick folder and an envelope on the edge of her desk.

‘I’m assuming that is an official request and case file on our roaming bandits.’

‘You would be correct,’ he smiled gently. ‘As much as I would like to say that the chaos and drama of Fairy Tail’s apparent return is what kept me in Magnolia, I must admit that I stayed because I suspected that the council would soon be making this request and wanted to save myself the return trip.’

‘Well, I would certainly hate for you to waste your time. Do they have a location or am I to run around Fiore doing the Rune Knights jobs? Again.’

Her words were harsh, but Jurah saw the humour in the slight quirk at the corner of her mouth and laughed.

‘It is suspected that their base may be somewhere in Clover Canyon.’

Lucy just rolled her eyes. She already figured that out for herself, but with the supposedly all-powerful Magic Council in control she had expected a little more specificity. Clover Canyon was a rabbit warren of dips and valleys that cracked the earth for miles on end, travellers often being reported missing and some daring wizards never being seen again after deciding that they were strong enough to navigate it on their own.

‘I’ll look through the information to see if they know anything more than I do, but so far you’ve simply confirmed my own suspicions.’

‘Then I’ll return with the good news that Lady Heartfilia has taken the job. You’ll obviously be compensated, but I assumed you would like me to do the same with the money as I did for your other jobs.’

‘Yes, give it to a town still trying to recover from Tartaros. The last thing I need is more damned money.’

She flipped open the folder as Jurah turned to leave, but never heard the door. She looked up to find Jurah looking at her from the doorway. He sighed.

‘You don’t want to hear this Lucy, but I think I’m the only one willing to say it to you. You need to find a way to forgive them,’ the file in Lucy’s hand caught fire as her magic flared. ‘Just let me finish and you can decide whether I live or die afterwards.’

Lucy didn’t respond and Jurah took that as a sign that he may continue.

‘I have never defended what they did. I have, in fact, condemned them as much as your spirits, but it is killing you to be so full of pain. You can forgive them without accepting them back into your life. You can forgive them without ever loving or trusting them again. You can forgive them without ever telling them so if that is what you would prefer, but you need to do this for yourself. The rage and hatred and sadness and pain…it will kill you Lucy.’

Lucy hid it well, but Jurah had searched her eyes and actions for a while and watched as her heart broke before his eyes. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her more, she had suffered more than enough, but deep in his very soul he felt she needed to hear those words – felt that someone, anyone, had to stop worrying about her being too weak to handle opinion.

Lucy had proven her strength over and over again, even when she was still the Light of Fairy Tail. She had nothing left to prove and there was no reason for her to be coddled. Her emotions were going to kill her. He could see her light dimming by the minute, and he refused to see such a bright star forced into supernova so early in her impressive life.

‘I will send Virgo with confirmation once the criminals have been apprehended.’

He was being dismissed and he was okay with that, he had crossed her boundaries far enough.

He left with guilt weighing on his chest, passing a group of Lucy’s former guild mates who he had allowed to listen to their exchange.

* * *

**Natsu** had taken Jurah up on his offer to listen to his meeting with Lucy. He had no idea what that kooky wizard was planning, but he couldn’t bring himself to let the opportunity pass him by – and neither could the rest of his team.

He heard the misery in Lucy’s voice as she dismissed Jurah, recognised the pain she let show just to him, and he hated himself even more.

After everything that Sabretooth had told them that day, after the guilt of knowing that leaving Lucy behind had caused such harm to Yukino, he could barely keep himself from begging forgiveness.

But as guilty and horrid as Natsu felt, he was not the begging type and Lucy wasn’t the forgiving type – not on the big things. He knew that well, she was his partner after all -he knew her better than anyone.

Lucy was a person who valued someone who earned things through hard work and so he would simply have to work hard.

If he was going to put his team back together – put his whole guild back together – then it was going to take an absolute shit load of work.

They tiptoed their way back to their table, ignoring the scorching eyes of Loke who, for whatever reason, hadn’t stopped Jurah from taking them upstairs with him, and motioned everyone outside.

He took them all to his cabin, sharing everything he had heard on the way. His cabin was only small, but it would make do as a meeting place for the guild until they had earned the right to use Lucy’s Guild – and that is exactly what it was. Lucy, without even realising it, had created her own guild. The guild members may be her spirits, but they were still her guild.

It was easy to see that the whole town adored her. She may be cold and emotionless now, but she was still kind and the townspeople were incredibly loyal to her. He had watched them come in and out of the bar, had listened to them talk amongst themselves about how grateful they were to Lucy for rebuilding Magnolia and everything she had done to protect them for the past two years.

‘Okay, we need a game plan,’ said Levy, jumping up into the middle of the group and whipping out a light pen. ‘Suggestions?’

Lisanna put her hand in the air like she was in class.

‘We could help her get the criminals she’s hunting.’

‘Nah, she ain’t gunna like that. It annoyed her enough before when we’d jump in to save the day, and that’s before she became a Wizard Saint! Or at least as powerful as one. She’s gunna hate it even more now,’ and Natsu knew that Gajeel was right.

‘We could do it without her knowing?’ Levy suggested. ‘I mean, she still needs information, right? What if we find out what we can to help her? Jurah said they were somewhere in Clover Canyon, right? Natsu and Happy, Wendy and Carla and Gajeel and Lily can go as a group to fly over different parts of the canyon and see what they can find.’

‘That is an excellent idea,’ said Erza.

‘Only if they can actually find their way out,’ scoffed Gray.

‘That’s actually a good point,’ Natsu said. ‘Does anyone have a spell to help us find our way back out? A homing beacon or something?’

Everyone was quiet, just staring at Natsu.

‘What?’

‘You would usually just jump into the canyon and run, Flame Brain. When did you start thinking?’

‘I had to figure it out while I was away. A little harder to jump into a fight without backup. I guess I was used to having Lucy or you guys with me,’ he thought about that first fight with an entire mountain full of Vulcan but shook it off before he could get distracted. ‘Now, does anyone have any ideas about how we can navigate the canyon?’

The shocked looks only lasted another moment before Cana chimed in.

‘My cards can be used a communication lacrima. Those lacrima will be able to sense me and give you a direction to travel. You can explore the canyon and when you need to leave you just follow the card back to me.’

‘That’s quite impressive, Cana,’ Erza praised.

‘I’ve been training. I wanted to come home stronger than I was when I left…and more useful. I could barely do a damn thing when Tartaros attacked, even with Fairy Glitter blazing on my arm!’ Cana smacked her right fist into the ground, the mark of Fairy Glitter glowing at the impact. ‘And Lucy…my god. We left it all to Lucy and didn’t even care enough to notice.’

Cana choked back a sob, Juvia putting an arm around her shoulder to try and soothe her.

‘Juvia has also been feeling guilty. Juvia was so focussed on Gray-Sama letting her go with him that she didn’t think of anyone else.’

‘I’m her best friend and even I didn’t think about it,’ Levy sobbed. ‘How could I not think about her? Why didn’t I bother saying goodbye?’

‘No, it is us who must take the blame,’ Erza declared, giving stern glances to Natsu, Happy and Gray. ‘We are her team, her best friends. We spent fighting by eachother’s sides only to abandon her both during and after battle. It is a disgrace.’

‘I won’t argue with that, Erza,’ Gray muttered. ‘I just…my Dad died…AGAIN…and I had the Demon Slayer abilities running through me…I just didn’t think.’

‘Okay, enough is enough!’ Shockingly, it was Freed who jumped to his feet, hands on his hips and his enchanted eye glowing a violent purple. ‘If we’re all done sitting here being sorry for ourselves, then we actually have work to do. We won’t be helping anyone if we just sit here moping around, so get your heads out of your miserable arses and do something about it.’

He plucked the light pen out of Levy’s hand and started drawing all over the walls and in thin air, his elegant script covering every inch of space he could find. Levy, the only one in the room with any chance of understanding what he was doing, requipped a light pen…wait.

‘Levy!’ Erza shouted, shocked. ‘Did you just requip?!’

Levy turned bright red.

‘Umm, yes?’ She squeaked. ‘I got tired of carrying a bag of supplies with me, so I learned a very minimal amount of Requip Magic to keep my items in a small pocket around my hands. I have everything I need at the flick of a finger now.’

Erza was incredibly impressed and so proud of Levy that she jumped up and knocked her head against her chest in Erza’s version of an affectionate embrace.

‘You truly are an impressive wizard, Levy McGarden.’

‘Uh, thanks Erza,’ Levy said, her voice muffled against Erza’s chest plate.

Levy managed to untangle herself from Erza and got back to work, sometimes writing over Freed’s writing and Freed sometimes re-writing hers. Everyone sat in silence, knowing better than to ask questions before either of them were finished, and watched.

‘Yes, I believe this will be effective,’ Freed finally spoke, tucking the light pen behind his ear and crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Mm, the weather seems the only variable, but we don’t have a weather wizard and will just have to deal with the sandstorms,’ Levy replied, tapping the end of the light pen against her chin as she read over their notes.

Gajeel, recognising that it was safe to approach his Shrimp now that she’d gotten her thoughts written down, decided to be the one to speak up.

‘Wanna tell us what’s up, Shrimp?’

‘Hmm?,’ Levy turned curious eyes to Gajeel. ‘Oh! Right, Freed and I were planning our search of Clover Canyon.’

‘Seriously? That’s a bunch of runes, how is that supposed to tell us what we’re doing?’ Bixlow scoffed.

He was baiting Freed. He knew damn well that whatever those two had cooked up would work, but teasing Freed was a hobby he’d missed over the last few months when he’d left the Thunder Legion to travel with Lisanna. He had a lot of overdue pranks to dish out on his team.

Predictable, a snooty Freed waved a smug hand toward the runes and was satisfied as Bix’s jaw dropped open and his dumb tongue flopped out against his chin in shock.

The runes glowed and swirled around the room, settling into a pattern that effectively created a 3D map of the entire canyon, multi-coloured blips flashing at certain locations in a code that didn’t mean anything to anyone else in the room.

‘Well…fuck,’ Bixlow muttered.

Levy, not noticing the shock and awe on people’s faces, jumped right into the explanation.

‘Right, the east,’ she pointed to a set of flashing red blips. ‘Is where we know to find a bunch of big bads. We don’t want to go to this area if we can avoid it. It does not seem statistically logical for anyone to build a base of operations out of this location as they would be spending most of their time fighting the creatures. Unless they have a bunch of extremely powerful mages with them, but that also seems unlikely. An operation such as this would require their strongest mages to be in the field to attack their target locations. It is a waste of power to keep them locked up in a base killing monsters.’

‘Correct,’ Freed jumped in. ‘Statistically speaking, the very centre of the canyon is the most likely location. It is rarely travelled, not much is known about that location and it would be the hardest for anyone to get to in order to lure them out or raid their own base.’

The centre of the canyon was surrounded by green blips.

‘Mhmm. This location in particular,’ Levy pointed to a large green star surrounded by small green dots. ‘A study of the topography suggests that this area likely has a river or small, naturally formed oasis. A base needs water, particularly out there. This would be an important find for them.’

‘Alright, what course of action do you suggest?’ Erza asked, studying the map for herself and coming to the same conclusions.

‘We want the slayers to go here first,’ she pointed once more at the green star. If there is nothing there, then we would like you to split up and check the surrounding areas. I will draw a map for you to use while you are out there. Go to the other areas marked in green. Remember not to engage. We are simply spying on this mission and you’ll only be collecting information.’

Levy glared at Gajeel and Natsu, knowing that she didn’t have to worry about Wendy starting unnecessary fights.

‘Alright then,’ Erza stood, addressing the crowd of Fairy Tail mages all crammed into Natsu’s small cabin. ‘Cana, prepare your lacrima cards. We’ll need those as soon as possible. Natsu, Happy, Gajeel, Pantherlily, Wendy and Carla, prepare for your mission. Make sure to take enough water to survive in the heat. You must not be caught unprepared in a sandstorm or one of those heat waves.’

There was a loud ‘Aye, Sir!’ from everyone in the room and they went their separate ways, everyone preparing one thing or another to ready the Slayers.

Natsu pretended not to notice the golden glow in the corner, a small smile on his lips at the knowledge that Lucy – or at the very least, one of her spirits – was watching.


	7. Chapter 7

**Loke** remained behind the bar, casually wiping down the glasses and tidying the benches, when Plu popped back into the room. He gave the little guy a thimble of scotch – the little gremlin loved his liquor – and listened as Plu spoke of their plan to go into Clover Canyon for Lucy.

He had half a mind to march over to Natsu’s cabin and smack their heads together for being such idiots. He wouldn’t of course, but the temptation was strong. They could get themselves killed and that would set Lucy’s progress back way further than they already had.

‘They need to let her go,’ Virgo growled, picking up Plu and moving him away from a half full glass of vodka left behind by a customer. ‘They think they’re helping but Lucy is drowning.’

Loke wished he could agree. As much as he hated what they did, and even though he knew that Lucy was drowning, he couldn’t help but accept that Lucy needed them.

‘She was smiling again,’ Aries grumbled.

Capricorn sighed, standing stoically against at the end of the bar.

‘We have to help them,’ he said. With a straight face.

‘I agree,’ said Loke, trying not to disintegrate under the burning glares of his fellow spirits. Even Plu, drunk as he was, summoned a withering glare to throw his way. ‘Look, the only reason Lucy seemed to be coming back is that she got used to them being gone. She didn’t heal, we all know that. We can feel her misery in her magic. She wasn’t happy – she wasn’t even trying to be happy – she just got used to being miserable.’

Scorpio appeared from the Celestial Realm and slammed a piece of paper down on the bar.

‘For the love of everything, will one of you find Aquarius’ new key already?! She’s losing it up there!’ and he disappeared again.

No one wanted to touch Aquarius’ letter. That woman was terrifying, and they couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t booby-trapped it. Deciding to be brave, Loke stepped forward to pick it up…immediately cringing away from it when he saw who it was addressed to.

She’d left a letter for Natsu.

* * *

**Gray** did not like being left behind. He was desperate to rush off into the canyon with the slayers, but he couldn’t fly on his own and, unless he had the deeply buried skill of keeping secrets even from himself, then he didn’t have an exceed around to help him out.

He wasn’t alone in his frustration. Even Laxus and Mira stayed behind, and they could fly!

‘No, we must only send the Slayers,’ Freed had said, staring down both Laxus AND Mira when they tried to go, too. ‘You are too well known and, Laxus, you have no subtlety. A loud and blinding streak of lightning flashing all over the canyon is a neon sign for those rogues.”

Gray had agreed, reluctantly, but he still hated that he had to just sit and wait for the slayers to return. And what was he supposed to do in the meantime? He’d already spent an entire day in bed with Juvia. That was by no means a complaint. His girlfriend had the most extraordinary body and mind and the things she could do to him blew his mind, even after almost 18 months together. She could do nothing more than give him a light peck on the cheek and he’d just about melt in a puddle at her feet…which is ironic considering Juvia could quite literally do that if he made her too hot too quickly. But he took her melting as a sing of accomplishment.

Today, however, marked quite the momentous occassion: Juvia had kicked him out of bed for the first time ever.

‘Darling, as much as Juvia is loving the affection from her beloved,’ she’d panted, coming down from yet another high that Gray had given her that day. ‘She does wonder if maybe her Gray is too anxious about Fairy Tail’s mission and is trying to distract himself with Juvia.’

Hearing it put that way did make him feel guilty.

‘Go now, Gray-Sama. You must do what you can to help and Juvia must go and try to speak with Lucy.’

‘Do you think that is a good idea? She really does seem to hate us now,’ Gray said, running his hand along Juvia’s thigh for comfort. ‘You can see it in her eyes when she looks at us.’

‘No, Gray-Sama,’ Juvia sat up, wrapping her arms around Gray’s chest and resting her forehead between his shoulder blades. ‘Juvia saw real hate in peoples’ eyes when she was a member of Phantom Lord. Lucy’s eyes do no show hate. They are full of immense pain. She would like to hate us, I am sure, but her heart will not let her.’

‘I don’t think her heart feels anything anymore.’

Juvia had never seen Gray so down. Sure, he was broody and never had been the most expressive man, but she had never seen him so truly upset. If Juvia did not understand why Lucy was so broken, then she would be sorely tempted to drown her.

‘We simply have to win her back, Gray-Sama. The way she treats us may hurt, but we can’t forget what all of us spent the last two and a half years doing to her. She is this way because of what we did, and I don’t think we have the right to act like we are hurting any more than she is.’

Gray sighed. Juvia was right and it was time for him to stop moping.

‘Okay. I suppose we better get to work, then.’

* * *

**Lucy** couldn’t help but be amused…internally of course. Juvia had been in the bar for almost two hours and she had ben getting progressively closer to Lucy’s spot at the bar.

Did Juvia truly think she was being subtle?

All that hopping around from seat to seat and the ‘inconspicuous’ looks she kept throwing Lucy’s way. She had even hidden her face behind a damn newspaper when she’d walked through the door! As if that blue hair wasn’t already obvious as hell. 

‘If you’re done spying, Juvia,’ Lucy said, not looking up from her paperwork as Juvia moved to the seat at the other end of the bar. ‘You may as well hurry up and tell me what you want.’

Juvia fell off her barstool.

* * *

**_Oh_ ** _crap._

How did Lucy know what Juvia was doing? She had come in disguised and hidden among the customers!

‘Uh, oh, hmm,” Juvia fidgeted, trying to find the right words. ‘Uh, Juvia wasn’t spying, she was just trying to talk to Lucy.’

‘Then would you mind getting to the point?’ Lucy’s hand shot out and grabbed a new folder from a stack of paper. ‘These reports aren’t going to read and approve themselves.’

‘Right,’ Juvia’s shoulders drooped. ‘I suppose it is a bad time, then. Juvia just wanted to talk with Lucy and ask what she has been doing since we last spoke.’

‘We last spoke in the middle of a battlefield, Juvia. Since then I’ve recovered, trained and run a bar. Are we done here?’

‘Sure,’ Lucy hadn’t even looked up from her paperwork. ‘I guess we’ll talk later.’

Juvia left feeling defeated, not noticing the trembling of Lucy’s hand as she held her pen above her notepad.

Neither girl noticed Loke’s heavy sigh as he slipped out the side door.

* * *

**‘Nothing!’** Natsu growled, resisting the urge to break something in his frustration. ‘We searched every area indicated on the map and there was nothing at all!’

‘It’s okay, Natsu,’ Levy said, looking over the tops of her glasses as she crossed more areas off her and Freed’s map. ‘It just means we reassess the parameters of our search algorithms and try again.’

‘We’ve been searching for a week now, Shrimp. We need a new plan all together.’

A golden glow took over the room, momentarily blinding everyone.

‘Lucy and the council have been searching Fiore for months. Did you honestly expect to find them in a week?’ Loke couldn’t help his tone.

He may have accepted that Lucy needed these people, but it didn’t mean he could forgive them.

‘Loke! Is Lucy okay?’

Natsu understood the hatred that Lucy’s spirits held for them now, so it must be something important or dangerous for Loke to show up like this.

Loke, for his part, hated that he was there at all. It felt like he was betraying Lucy’s trust even though his only intention was to help her heal. As much as he couldn’t stand the thought, even he now recognised that for Lucy to heal she needed her Guild.

Loke felt a nudge from the spirit world and resisted the urge to flinch. She was terrifying even when she couldn’t pass through. He gathered his celestial energy and focussed it to a single point in the centre of the room. It took a moment, but a pale and flickering image of an incredibly pissed of Aquarius was suddenly there for all to see.

'YOU PATHETIC, HEARTLESS, DISLOYAL, TRAITOROUS, WASTE OF SPACE BUFFOONS!”

Loke lost track of time as Aquarius raged around the room, reducing even Laxus to a quivering mess. It wasn’t until Loke felt the heavy drain on his energy that he even attempted to interrupt her.

'Aqu-' he began.

'WHAT?!'

'I’m running out of power here, so as satisfying as it is for me to see you tear shreds off of them, you really need to get to the point,” he held his voice steady by sheer force of will.

'Fine,' she turned back to a crowd gone very pale. 'Sit down, shut up and listen.'

They didn’t hesitate for a moment, all but collapsing like folding lawn chairs and shrinking away from the raging spirit.

'My key. That is why I’m here. Lucy has been searching for it, but she is only one person and she is searching the entire planet. Help her find it,' Aquarius growled, turning her back on them and fading into a world of golden light.

'What in the absolute fuck was that?!' Gajeel growled, mad at being intimidated by a projection of a spirit.

'Of course, she left it to me,' Loke sighed.

He looked around the sea of confused faces and, though he definitely still hated them, couldn’t help the twinge of nostalgia in his heart. He had tried to forget, but these people were his family long before he ever met Lucy. He had lost them, too.

Exhausted from the toll it took on him to hold Aquarius’ projection in this world, Loke sat on the edge of a side able against the wall and crossed his ankles, rubbing between his eyes to try and dissipate the growing tension headache.

'You know by now that to save your sorry arses, Lucy had to destroy Aquarius key and use that sacrifice to open the Spirit King’s gate, yes?'

He looked up, waiting for their response, but they didn’t offer much more than a jerky nod.

'Spirit keys regenerate. Once broken, the power of them regenerates the key and it reappears in a random part of the world to be found again by another Celestial Spirit. The only person who knows the exact location of the key is the Spirit King, but by celestial law and custom, he can’t tell Lucy exactly where it is. Aquarius has been travelling the spirit world and narrowed down the location of the key to somewhere in Bosco, but Lucy hasn’t had any luck finding it during the short occasions that she’s actually been able to leave Fiore to go and search.' 

Surprised that no one had shouted or interrupted in any way, Loke paused to give them an opportunity to speak.

'I made contacts with various suppliers and businesses in Bosco while we travelled, including a number of treasure hunters who I came across on a job. I’ll contact them and get them searching,' Laxus left the room mumbling about finding a communication Lacrima.

'I hate to say it, but we need to stay with Lucy,' Natsu spoke to Erza and Gray. 'We’re her team and as much as I want to run off to Bosco and sniff out that key, our place is here with her.'

Loke was genuinely shocked to his core. It was only now that he noticed how much Natsu had changed and definitely only now that he had realise that he might have changed for the better.

'Freed and I should remain here to continue with the search for the bandits or whoever the hell they are, but the dragon slayers all need to head to Bosco,' she shushed Gajeel as he began his protest. 'Your noses, Gaj. Like it or not, but you, Laxus and Wendy can sniff that key out, I know you can. Stop in at Sabretooth on the way and see about recruiting Rogue. Sting can’t leave on a treasure hunt as the master of the guild, but Rogue can. You can also speak with Yukino about Celestial Magic and how you might be able to interact with it to work smarter, not harder.'

'Shit, Shrimp. I can’t argue with any of that but I don’t like it.'

'I know, but it needs to be done,' Levy kissed the tip of Gajeel’s nose, the big oaf blushing much to Loke’s surprise.

'It’s settled then,' Erza stood up to address the group, her equilibrium restored no that they had a plan and goals to achieve. 'Natsu, Gray and I will remain in Magnolia with Lucy. The rest of you will head to Sabretooth and split off into teams. One Dragon Slayer per team, so sort that out now. You’ll want three teams, four if Rogue decides to join you. Team Shadowgear and Warren will remain here to assist Levi and Freed and keep communication open with all of us. Cana, can you make up more of your communication cards and hand them out?'

'I already started and have a stack ready to go. Figured we’d need them at some point so I began crafting them last week,' Cana chuffed proudly.

Loke had noted her sobriety. Well, what was sobriety for Cana. She barely chugged a barrel a day, now.

Loke left them to their planning, off kilter and not knowing what to do about it. He was trying hard to keep hating them, but only Lucy had that kind of dedication. The unexpected nostalgia as he watched his former family come together without hesitation to help his Lucy had cracked a little of the ice around his heart and, as much as he wanted to hate them purely for Lucy’s sake, he knew it wasn’t healthy. He let that crack widen, his bruised heart a little sore, but beating a little stronger than before.


	8. Chapter 8

**It** took a few days of painstaking work and she was completely exhausted, but Lucy had finally finished. Her workshop had taken months to build and she had needed a lot of help from her spirits to ensure she had the right magical equipment and resources to practice her skills in creating keys, but it had all been with it for this exact moment.

The diamond key she held in her hand was ice cold to the touch, but the power it contained made her so incredibly proud of herself. It would be some time before she could take it to Yukino and make sure it worked, the power needed time to settle into the key and reach a state of constant stability before she would risk Yukino trying to use it.

But it was irrelevant.

She had managed to harness her own power and the power of the celestial bodies to create a pathway for energy to flow from the Spirit World and directly into the key holder. With this key, Yukino would be able to summon her spirits again, would be able to mend the magical pathways within her body until her strength returned and she no longer needed to use the key to sustain her power.

The smile that graced her lips was euphoric and so shocking that Virgo couldn’t stop the tear that slipped down her cheek when she walked into Lucy’s workshop unannounced and, thankfully, unnoticed. Virgo didn’t want to disturb the genuine joy that Lucy was experiencing by invading it with the real world, so she kept the report from Capricorn to herself and decided to monitor the situation on her own until Lucy was available.

Lucy attached the diamond key ring she created specifically for this key and tucked it away inside a midnight blue velvet pouch, tucking it inside a celestial pocket that worked in a similar way that requip magic did. It would be safe there, able to absorb and reject celestial magic as its power settled into a state of calm.

Excited in a way she could never remember feeling, she all but bounced the stairs to the bar where she ordered a strawberry milkshake and didn’t think about the fact that Natsu, Gray and Erza were the only three members of her old guild that were in her restaurant today.

* * *

**‘She’s** smiling,’ Erza gasped, not able to stop herself from staring at Lucy like she’d suddenly sprouted tentacles. 

He wasn’t deliberately eavesdropping, but Natsu’s sensitive picked up conversation whether he wanted to or not. So he heard Loke and Virgo’s conversation as they bussed tables.

‘She had a breakthrough, didn’t she?’

‘I think she might have finished,’ Virgo said, going on to describe the way Lucy smiled and getting choked up when Loke grinned wider than Natsu had ever seen him smile. ‘I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt her, so she hasn’t seen Capricorn’s report yet.’

‘Shit, she’ll be pissed,’ Loke sighed.

‘She can get over it,’ Virgo growled. ‘I wasn’t taking that moment from no matter what. She’ll just have to live with it.’

‘You better go tell her now. She’s bound to pull out another stack of folders from the council soon enough and then you’ll just have to interrupt that.’

Virgo just shrugged again and went over to Lucy, pulling a file out of thin air and placing it on the desk in front of her.

Everything moved quickly after that.

* * *

**‘Virgo** , you should have given this to me hours ago,’ Lucy growled, marching back up the stairs to her office to get rid of her jacket and grab her boots. She’d warn regular flats into the workshop today, but she couldn’t fight in those.

‘Perhaps, but you were busy finishing Yukino’s key and I wasn’t interested in disrupting your progress for something that Capricorn already has under control.’

‘How did Capricorn narrow down the location?’

‘He’s smart,’ Virgo scoffed, cringing a little as Lucy glared at her.

But Lucy wasn’t glaring at Virgo, she had those dagger glued to the three people who filled the doorway.

‘What did Capricorn find and where are we going?’ Erza demanded, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that used to terrify Lucy.

Now it just pissed her off.

She finished pulling on her boots, ignoring them until she could bring her temper back under control and become indifferent.

‘I’ve had a new development in one of my cases and I need to go and investigate,’ she held up her hand before Gray could interrupt. ‘No, you can’t come with me.’

They moved when she left her office but followed her closely down the stairs. Virgo kept them far enough away from her that she couldn’t feel them, but she still knew they were there.

‘Lucy, maybe they should go with you,’ Virgo couldn’t contain her cringe this time, Lucy’s glare on her. ‘They should see what you do now, you know?’

‘It’s a delicate situation and I’m not going to let them fuck it up,’ Lucy growled, and Virgo couldn’t even argue.

A child’s life was on the line so it wasn’t exactly the right time to try and rock the boat – but Virgo pressed on. She turned abruptly to the trio behind them and stared them down.

‘You will promise to stay out of the way. You will not interrupt, you will not get involved, you won’t even speak unless spoken to, do you understand? You are there to watch and watch only.’

‘I won’t make any promises until I know what we’re walking into,’ Erza stated, matter of fact and just as Lucy remembered Erza to be when it came to completing their jobs three years ago.

‘You fuck up and a child dies,’ Virgo said, getting into Erza’s face. ‘You are there to watch, not act. If you can’t make that promise, then you won’t be going through the gate.’

‘Who is the child and what gate?’ Natsu, silent until now, was overcome by his own curiosity.

He’d been determined to simply play the part she needed him to play and not question anything. But now were gates and children in danger and he just couldn’t help himself.

‘Lucy travels via Celestial Gateways. They’re portals that she can open up and travel wherever she needs to go within seconds. And the child’s name is Arilla. She was taken from Magnolia three weeks ago and Lucy has been searching for her since it was reported.’

‘Why was he taken?’ Gray demanded, head in the game now that he understood what was at stake.

‘We’re wasting time,’ yelled, a golden portal opening before her a moment before she stepped through.

Virgo shoved the others – hard – and they fell through the portal a half second before it closed, foiling Lucy’s plan to close it before they could step through.

_Shit._

* * *

**Erza** landed hard, managing to roll on impact and come back up to her feet as she fell though the gate.

Lucy was pissed and she made no attempt to hide it.

They had landed on a cliff edge overlooking a sprawling mansion nestled into a clearing beneath the cliffs edge.

‘Stay here and don’t interrupt.’

And Lucy disappeared in a flash of golden light, that same light flashing down below as Lucy reappeared on the lawn in front of the mansions front entrance.

‘How are we supposed to just stand and watch?!’

Gray was riled up but while Erza understood his need to step into battle with his friend, she also understood that those instincts are attached to a Lucy who no longer existed. They were attached to a Luch who they clearly created in their own minds. Their instinct to save her had so obviously been wrong. Always stepping in front of the danger, taking on the brunt of all the fighting. Lucy was clearly capable of so much more than they had ever given her credit for.

So, Erza battled her instincts, allowing her curiosity at Lucy’s new abilities to take over.

‘There is no need to interfere, Gray. Lucy is clearly capable of fighting her own battles and it’s time we sat back and let her,’ Natsu said, seeming to have read Erza’s mind.

‘We stifled her,’ she muttered to herself as she watched Lucy life her arms and a line of the eleven surviving Zodiac Spirits appear in a battle formation on either side of her.

‘Holy shit,’ Gray gasped. ‘I thought they were opening their own gates.’

Erza had never thought that. Lucy kept all of their gates open. Permanently. Her magical capacity truly staggering, probably even greater than Makarov and even Gildarts.

They watched in awe as Lucy made a single hand signal and they moved with military precision. Virgo tunnelling under the mansion with Aries while the others made a show of storming the battlements. It was mere minutes later that Virgo and Aries reappeared on the cliff behind them, Aries clutching an exhausted little girl in her arms. Her face bruised, body wrapped in Aries wool and clutched so tight to the spirits’ chest that Erza knew nothing would ever tear her away.

It only took another ten minutes for Lucy and her spirits to have over a dozen men unconscious and restrained, having destroyed the dark guild and it’s headquarters in one fell swoop.

She opened a much larger portal a few moments later, the King’s Knights appearing in droves to arrest and transport the dark guild members, moving back and forth through Lucy’s portal as though they had done it a million times.

Which, Erza realised as the captain stepped forward with ease to have a comfortable conversation with Lucy, was exactly the case. They had probably done this a million times with Lucy.

It was all over in under an hour, Lucy closing the portal behind the last knights to leave with their prisoners. Erza watched as Lucy closed her spirits’ gates, except for Aries, and then watched, fascinated, as she raised her arms above her head, eyes glowing, and the mansion crumbled in itself all but turning to dust before her eyes.

‘That’s…’

Gray’s face had gone so pale Erza worried he would pass out.

‘The Arc of Time,’ Natsu finished for him.

‘You knew she could use it? How did she learn it? Ul-’ he stumbled over he name, pain choking him for a moment. ‘Ultear was the only person left who knew how to use it.’

‘I don’t know,’ Natsu admitted, keeping his cool as best he could, even though watching Lucy had both awed and terrified him. ‘This is the second time I’ve seen her use it, but Jurah told me that this is how Magnolia was rebuilt. Lucy managed to learn enough of the Arc of Time to rebuild the city piece by piece, simply turning back time on each thing that had been destroyed until it was as good as new.’

‘Ah,’ Erza sighed. ‘I had wondered how she had regained the cities trust and support. It wasn’t enough that she sacrificed everything she had, but she had to singlehandedly rebuild the city for them as well.’

‘Oh shut up,’ Aries growled. ‘She was left to clean up everyone’s mess. You should just be grateful that the citizens of Magnolia allowed you enter their city at all.’

Lucy appeared before Erza could respond, little Arilla opening her eyes for the first time since Aries brought her to the cliff and crying Lucy’s name.

Lucy took the little girl in her arms, held her close and let her cry massive, heartbroken tears all over her shoulder. There was a lot more to this story than a simple kidnapping, Erza thought to herself, knowing that she would probably never find out more than she already knew.

Lucy silently opened a portal and stepped through, not bothering to wait for her the members of her former team.

They jumped through, not entirely confident that Lucy wouldn’t leave them there.


	9. Chapter 9

Natsu stepped out of the portal and was a little taken back by the sight of Porliusica’s home. It made sense that the first pace Lucy would take an injured child was Porliusica’s home, but that they stepped out right into Porliusica’s living room – and Porliusica herself simply looked up and went to the child without screaming and losing her temper – told Natsu so much about what had happened over the last few years.

Lucy and Porliusica were close, which meant that they had spent a lot of time together, probably while Lucy was healing. Her healing must have been intense for this kind of relationship to form. Makarov had known the healer for…centuries? Honestly, how old was the geezer? Anyway, Makarov had known the healer for eons and he’d never seen them interact the way Lucy and Porliusica were.

He stayed at the edge of the room with Erza and Gray, silently observing. Lucy moved back and forth, mixing herbs, helping Porliusica as though she knew exactly what she was doing, which she clearly did. It was obvious that Lucy had trained her mind as much as her magic and body. She had at least learned how to mix healing potions and herbs.

She fascinated him.

‘We’re finished now child,’ Natsu listened in when Porliusica spoke to little Arilla. ‘Why don’t you lay down and get some sleep?’

‘Will they come back?’ Arilla’s voice was small and sweet and so, so sad.

‘No,’ Lucy was fierce, but kind. Comforting the child and assuring her with one word.

Arilla smiled sweetly at Lucy and closed her eyes, drifting off into an exhausted sleep and snoring softly within moments.

‘I’m guessing you will head to the prison to be part of the interrogations,’ said Porliusica.

‘Yes, I’m still missing two and they have the information that I need,’ growled Lucy, her rage in her eyes.

‘She will be safe here.’

‘I know,’ Lucy said disappearing in yet another flash of golden light.

‘Would it do us any good to ask you what is happening here?’ Erza asked of Porliusica, rather bravely if Natsu was being honest.

He’d grown in ways he didn’t understand since he’d been gone, but Porliusica still scared the bejeezus out of him.

Porliusica simply stared at them. Her eyes changed, all but glowing in the familiar way that he remembered from all the outbursts of her rage that he had witnessed since he Fairy Tail has taken him in.

‘Sit.’

They sat.

‘After the battle with Tartoros, Lucy-’ Natsu had never seen Porliusica so…broken. ‘I had never seen such physical injuries. To say that she had taken a beating would be a disgusting understatement. I don’t know how she managed to survive. The magic transfusion from Yukino restored her magic enough to survive, theoretically, but her body was broken.’

Porliusica paused to gather her thoughts, moving to her desk to put away some herbs so she didn’t have to keep looking at them. She had spoken to Jurah and agreed with his assessment of Fairy Tail coming back, for Lucy’s mental health if for nothing else, but it didn’t mean she could forgive them. She might never forgive them.

‘She pulled through. Her healing was brutal and I imagine it caused her far more pain to heal her injuries than to receive them in the first place, but she did it. When she’d managed to pull herself together enough to help the town, she realised that the situation was a lot worse than she thought. People had died. Whole families had died. There were orphans sleeping on old blankets in the ruins of the cathedral…Lucy couldn’t take it.’

‘How many died. Do we know?’ Gray’s face was ashen, his mind overcome with memories of his own childhood horrors.

‘I don’t know the exact number, but Lucy would. She dedicated herself entirely to this city. She used her magic to rebuild everything she could. Created safe spaces for the city’s children. Any of those children who were orphaned by the battle found homes in the safe houses that Lucy set up, but some of them were unique. It took her a while to figure it out, but Lucy discovered that being exposed to as much ether nano as FACE was putting into the world had multiplied a few of the children’s magical capacities to astonishing levels.’

‘What happened to them’ Erza was shaken, her own memories coming to the fore to haunt her for a moment. She knew what could happen to powerful children. What could be demanded of them, and she had a sick suspicion of what Lucy meant when she said she was ‘still missing two’.

‘Lucy took them under her wing. There are three children that she found with that unique magical signature, Arilla being one of them,’ they looked to the little girl curled up in a ball under the blanket. ‘She trained them as best she could, for their own safety. They were too young to control that much power without help and they were experiencing uncontrolled outbursts of destructive magic, that power just too big for their little bodies. It went well. We haven’t had any destructive episodes in more than six months.’

It was clear from her tone and the small smile on her lips that Porliusica was so damn proud of Lucy.

‘Two months before you got back into town, they went missing. Lucy had some of the King’s Knights looking after them and when they didn’t arrive for a training session Lucy just knew. She’s been searching for them relentlessly ever since, but she also needs to keep up appearances. She can’t let them know that she’s onto them. It’s why she still judged the Grand Magic Games, why she still makes a show of running her bar. She knows that they are watching to see what she will do next.’

‘They’ll know now,’ Natsu spoke up for the first time since landing in Porliusica’s home. ‘She just destroyed one of their bases and took over a dozen men out of commission. The other members of the Dark Guild will know what has happened, probably move the other two kids.’

‘That’s what she’s hoping for,’ said Erza following a sudden wave of realisation. ‘She knows where the other two are, but Arilla was the only one she could get to without putting her in more danger. She needs to interrogate the others to learn their travel routes. She’s going to ambush them when they move the kids.’

‘Is it the same Dark Guild that she’s been hunting in the Canyons?’

‘No, I don’t think it is,’ Natsu answered Gray. ‘The Canyon Guild is stealing magical weaponry from caches all over the country, something she was put onto by the Council and the Knights. This is different. This Guild has some goal to use these kids for something, I just can’t think of anything they’d need them for.’

‘The faces,’ squeaked Arilla, shocking the lot of them. They hadn’t noticed that she was awake and listening to every word they spoke.

‘The faces?’ Erza went over the little girl, sitting on the edge of the bed and tucking her back in.

‘We’re meant to touch some faces for them,’ she clarified, rolling over and falling asleep again as Erza soothed her, running her hand over her hair and humming to the little girl.

‘We have to tell Lucy. Now. They’re trying to use the kids to reactivate FACE,’ Gray spoke the very thing that Natsu didn’t want to think about, flashes of that final battle sending ripples of dread throughout his system. 

He felt his key warm against his chest and wrapped his hand around it for comfort.

_It’s okay, Natsu._

And Natsu cried. It was the first time he’d heard Igneel. He’d tried so hard, hours spent every day just focussing his mind on the key to try and hear something, anything, but he hadn’t so much as heard Igneel breath.

‘Natsu?’

Erza had come over to him, knelt in front of him and taken the hand he didn’t have wrapped around his key. 

‘Igneel,’ was all he could say, but they knew. His grin almost broke his face as he wiped his tears away.

‘We have to get back to the guild. I imagine Lucy will go there before she sets out to save her kids and we need to be there to make her take us with her,’ Erza stood, moving toward the door.

‘Her kids?’ Gray asked.

‘Don’t you see it? She followed Fairy Tail tradition to the letter. She did for those kids exactly what Makarov did for us. She took them, gave them safety, a home and them trained them so they’d have the power help themselves. I doubt she wants to see it that way, but Lucy takes care of her city and it’s people the way any real Guild Master should. The Light of Fairy Tail was never snuffed out, she burns brighter than ever,’ and Erza left the room, marching with purpose down the forest path toward Magnolia and the Guild Hall.


	10. Chapter 10

**Lucy** went straight back to the guild to rally her spirits; the interrogations having been a success.

She stepped out of the portal and saw Erza, Natsu and Gray standing at the bar with Loke, as she had suspected they would be. She wasn’t so arrogant in her hurt and rage that she would turn down that kind of power and put her pain ahead of the safety of innocent children, so she didn’t bat an eye as she went to join them at the bar.

‘Arilla?’ she asked, knowing they would have stayed back with Porliusica – who probably told them everything she knew.

Not that Lucy could fault her blabber mouth. Not when it had saved Lucy the time it would have taken to explain everything herself.

‘Arilla is sleeping soundly back with Porliusica,’ Natsu replied, leaning his elbows against the bar and pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘She told us what they wanted her for.’

Lucy knew her power had shoved against her restraints and erupted in a glowing show of sparks, but she didn’t make any effort to contain it. Rage was rage and she would let it out or let it consume her.

To their credit, they didn’t so much as flinch.

‘I don’t understand,’ Gray said. ‘All of FACE was destroyed in the battle, so how could Arilla and the others activate it?’

‘Mika and Odette.’

‘Hmm?’

‘Their names are Mika and Odette,’ Lucy needed to say their names. Hearing them referred to as ‘the others’ had scraped against her already raw nerve endings.

**‘How** could Arilla, Mika and Odette activate FACE?’ Erza asked, understanding immediately why Lucy had been so specific.

It wasn’t something she ever spoke about, but Erza knew the importance of a name more than anyone else in the Guild. She had grown up a slave, surrounded by the nameless who were treated as nothing and shoved into mass graves once their bodies had given into the exhaustion that their slavery had subjected them to. It had been something so important back then and it was the reason she still bore the name ‘Scarlet’ with pride. Jellal had cared enough to name her, to make her a person, and names had been precious to Erza ever since.

Erza remembered and could dutifully recite the names of every slave she’d known, and those who were nameless she had made a point of remembering their assigned numbers coupled with something about them that had made them a person and not simply a number hatsily scrawled on a role call.

_2278 had died when she was nine, but Erza remembered the scar on her cheek that 2278 had cherished. She had scratched her cheek when she set off a booby trap in a cave near her village that everyone had believed to be cursed. It wasn’t, of course, but 2278 was one of the smartest people Erza had met at that time in her life and she had spent days figuring out the traps and codes to make it through the winding tunnels. 2278 found the most amazing murals and paintings hidden away in the back of that cave._

_2278 had wanted to be an adventurer and learn magics that would help her on her travels. 2278 was dead, but Erza made a point to remember her life._

‘FACE was destroyed,’ Lucy said, pulling Erza from her painful memories and back into the present. ‘But the idiots on the council didn’t think it worth doing any clean up. If I had known then I would have done it myself.’

Lucy’s light grew brighter, her power shining through her very pores, and Erza resisted the urge to cover her eyes.

‘Those pathetic, greedy pieces of gutter filth decided to study the remains of face, so they collected enough from the rubble nearest them and left the rest of it out in the world just in case they needed to collect more,’ Lucy growled. ‘As it turns out, if you puzzle those pieces back together using pure, molten ether nano then you can create a version of FACE that works the same way, but on a much smaller scale. They hadn’t figured out how to activate it until now.’

The news that this new council was just as slimy as the last wasn’t a shock to Natsu, but that they would allow such a thing to happen so soon after Tartaros…it spoke of a stupidity and recklessness that even Natsu simply couldn’t fathom.

‘They can’t find out about the children,’ Erza was horrified.

‘They already know, but it would be pointless for the council to try and take them,’ Lucy said as Aries threw a table across the room.

‘I would kill anyone who tried,’ she growled, flicking in and out of her dark form as she struggled to control her rage and protective instinct.

‘So, what’s the plan?’

Loke needed to get Aries to focus on their task, not on protection, so he cut in to redirect the conversation.

‘I already have the knights scouting the area and setting traps. I know their planned routes and have already set my own systems in place to alert me whenever Mika and Odette enter those fields of power,’ Lucy explained. ‘Until then, I have the council to deal with.’

‘They have a lot to answer for,’ Gray slammed his fist on top of the bar, ice spreading from his hand and over the countertop. ‘Again!’

‘Yes,’ Lucy sighed, suddenly so bone tired.

Why couldn’t people just be decent? They were selfish and power hungry and cruel and for whatever fucking reason they always ended up being Lucy’s responsibility.

Lucy just wanted to rest, for fuck sake. She just wanted a moment of peace.

‘What do you plan on doing with the council?’ Natsu asked, snapping her out of her moping and back into reality.

‘I have already demanded that they convene. They know why and they also know that lying to me when I get there won’t be an option. I will destroy any parts of FACE that they have at their disposal and order the immediate removal of the responsible parties from office,’ she sipped from the mocktail that Loke had handed her. ‘After that, I’ll personally see to the destruction of every remaining molecule of FACE that remains in the world.’

‘The children first, though,’ Erza chimed in.

‘Obviously,’ Lucy drained the last of her glass as Virgo arrived to tell her that the council was waiting. ‘Good. I’ll summon all of you once there. You’ll be covering all entrances and exits to ensure the guilty parties have no escape.’

‘You’re talking like there are innocent council members. They all would have known,’ Gray scoffed.

To his knowledge, they had never had a pleasant meeting with a member of the council – past or present – and he highly doubted there were any nice people in the council now.

To Grays’ surprise, Loke laughed at him. To his face.

‘What’s up, Kitty Cat?’ Gray growled at the spirit.

‘You have so much to learn if you bother sticking around,’ he chuckled as he wiped down Lucy’s glass and turned it upside down in his bar rack to dry. ‘Lucy has had eyes on the council since the moment it was reformed, not to mention spies who actively tail the council members and informants within every level of government that exists, military included.’

**Natsu** , Gray and Erza gaped at Lucy, who had apparently become a Spymaster – Spymistress? Spylord? Spy…something! – once she’d healed and powered up.

‘They couldn’t be trusted,’ she shrugged, dismissing how impressed they all seemed to be.

‘Okaaaay…’ Natsu was kind of lost for words.

He knew how powerful Lucy had become both magically and physically, but politically as well?

He had barely managed to open his third origin in the two years he’d been away and it had hurt like a bitch and taken forever to recover from, but Lucy had basically become a Wizard Saint and taken over all of Fiore in that exact same amount of time.

How had he never noticed that she had this much potential locked away inside of her?

**He** didn’t know it, but Erza was asking herself the same questions.

In the years since Fairy Tail had disbanded she had grown in power, yes, but nowhere near the extent that the Celestial Mage had done.

Erza had travelled the world looking for unique and powerful armour and learning from Blacksmithing Mages who were masters in the art of crafting magical armour and weaponry.

She wasn’t too humble to admit that she was fucking good at blacksmithing. Her physical and magical strength meant that the armour she crafted was tempered to a much higher degree than most smiths could manage, and she was steadily improving upon and strengthening all the armour and weaponry that she possessed. She had expanded her Requip capabilities as well, now possessing the ability to create a pocket around another person and requip their armour if it was needed. She had started collecting various armour and weaponry sets just for that occasion. Sets of armour that would fit a wide range of people and an even wider range of magical talents.

But other than her new skills as a Blacksmith and her relationship with Jellal, Erza honestly couldn’t say that she had attained any higher levels of growth.

It had been a very long time since she had felt true awe at another mages’ ability, strength or adaptability, but Erza found herself in complete wonder at Lucy’s talents.

It was time for Erza to recognise that in trying to protect Lucy all the time, she was actively destroying any chance the Celestial Mage had to grow, learn and become the powerful wizard that she was today.

It was a hard pill for Titania to swallow, but she choked it down and swore she’d never get in Lucy’s way again…except to spar, because that was happening.

**Gray** wanted to find some reason to be mad, or disappointed or critical – to find some piece of the old Lucy to latch onto and grip for dear life.

Did he find everything about the new Lucy impressive? Fuck Yes.

Did he miss his old friend? Fuck Yes.

Watching her now – the cold rage in her eyes, her emotionless voice – he just couldn’t find it in himself to be happy for her.

He was proud of her, so god damned proud, but she wasn’t happy. His friend used to be so full of joy that she literally bounced when she walked. When she walked into the room you couldn’t help but smile.

She was light and joy and…well, she wasn’t though, was she?

It was always so easy to forget her life before Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail Lucy had been a light that burned so bright that you’d be able to find your way in the deepest depths of space, but there were other Lucy’s.

Lucky Lucy Heartfilia, an Heiress so miserable that she literally jumped from a fifth story window to escape her abusive father and an arranged marriage that would have turned her into a rich mans baby maker. He always forgot because he never knew that Lucy.

He could see her now, though. There may be rage in her eyes, but there was also an old and bone deep sadness deep with her. She tried to hide it, tried to be Badass Lucy to her fullest extent – and she was most definitely a badass by every definition of the word – but Badass Lucy was just an angry, more magical version of Heiress Lucy and they were responsible for plunging her back into that darkness. 

_‘You have so much to learn if you bother to stick around.’_

That’s what Loke had just said, and it finally clicked for Gray.

Lucy was keeping herself apart from her Guild, hiding her very soul, because she was waiting for them all to leave again.

It was like a blast of Laxus’ Lightning went off inside Grays’ brain, shaking his view on this whole situation.

She wanted them to leave so she could stop feeling so much pain.

And she wanted then to stay so that she might heal and stop hurting.

_Well…fuck._

**‘Time** for me to go,’ Lucy stood abruptly and would have jumped right through a celestial gate to escape whatever heavy emotions had just settled over those three psychos, but Virgo was standing next to her with a change of clothes and a towel.

‘Not yet Princess,’ Virgo smirked, knowing exactly what had made Lucy so desperate to leave. ‘You need to make a power play and to do that you are going to need to look the part. I have run a bath and prepared these clothes for you.’

Lucy took the bundle and opened a gate, teleporting to the top floor of the Guild Hall where she had a full sized and magically concealed apartment built into the roof. Invisible to the eye and impossible to find without the ability to detect and interact with magical barriers, Lucy had made the decision to build it almost completely out of glass so that she would have an unencumbered view of both the night sky and Magnolia.

It was her favourite place to be.

She bathed quickly, throwing on the clothes that Virgo had given her and tightly braiding her long golden hair to keep kt out of the way if a fight broke out.

Virgo hadn’t been kidding about making a power play. She wore a long black skirt with a slit on the right that went all the way to her hip. A black and gold corset - somehow designed to hold everything in place and still give her freedom of movement - cinched her waste in a way that was somehow incredibly comfortable. The shoes that Virgo had given her, however, made Lucy question Virgo’s intentions.

_Am I seducing the council or kicking it’s arse? What the hell, Virgo?!_

The shoes were gold, six inch stilettos with straps covered in golden stars that criss-crossed their way up her legs until a star shaped clasp secured them at her thigh.

Yes, they were incredibly cute and ridiculously comfortable, but they were neither appropriate nor practical.

She was about to rip them off when Virgo appeared, wearing her leather catsuit, and flicked the tip of her whip at Lucy’s hand to keep her from undoing the clasp.

‘Don’t you dare!’ Virgo meant business. ‘You are wearing that and you are going to show the whole damn world exactly what it means to piss of the only ever Celestial Empress ever appointed by the Celestial Spirit King. Not that they’ll know what the fuck that means because you couldn’t be bothered to brag about it, and you’ve banned us from saying anything and you-’

Lucy tuned out Virgo’s ranting, knowing that she would stop eventually and realise that she was wasting everyone’s time.

It was a kick to her heart to remember her appointment as the Celestial Empress to the Spirit Realm. The Spirit King had created that role millennia upon millennia ago, waiting for a wizard to prove themselves worthy of taking on higher responsibilities with their magic.

He had hope once upon a time, when that first Wizard had managed to create a key, but he went bad very quickly.

That mage had decided to spend his time finding ways to trap the souls of other, more powerful mages within keys and summon their power by turning them into celestial spirits.

It was the only time the Spirit King had ever used his power to sever the ties between a Mage and the Celestial realm, leaving the mage powerless and making all contracts void and worthless.

But he had chosen Lucy.

Lucy was, essentially, a genuine Princess – summoned as a ruler over the Celestial Mages of the world. She was Confidant, Teacher, Judge and Jury to those Celestial Mages, but she had only been called upon once in the eight months since the Spirit King had granted her that role.

She had severed that mages spiritual control over the spirits that he had contracts with, having discovered that the situation was like what Loke had experienced when he was contracted to Karen Lillica.

It was a no brainer for Lucy.

Mistreat your spirits and Lucy, the holder of all thirteen zodiac keys, Celestial Empress and Almost Wizard Saint, would ruin your life.

‘-and you need to snap out of it for fuck sake! They haven’t left, they’re desperately trying to help and I still hate them and I still love them and I know you do too but you won’t admit it and the situation sucks and…I’m done,’ Virgo finally shut the hell up. ‘Okay. You look all murdery, Princess, so I’m going to go _Poof_ and I’ll see you at the council meeting.’

Lucy didn’t respond, she simple walked downstairs, ignoring the stunned expressions on her former guild mates faces as they got a look at what she was wearing, opened a celestial gate and stepped through, waiting for them to follow.


	11. Chapter 11

**It** took a phenomenal amount of control and some vivid thoughts about a naked Gray for Natsu to hold himself together. He almost lost it, seeing his Lucy walk down wearing THAT.

It had taken Natsu some time away from Lucy to understand why he couldn’t stand to be away from her for too long. Why he grabbed onto her that day in Hargeon and dragged her home to Fairy Tail. To understand why calling her his ‘best friend’ wasn’t enough, but it was the only word he had.

Natsu was in love with his best friend…probably had been since Hargeon but was just too dumb to figure it out at the time.

It had taken time away and a little bit of…experience…for Natsu to realise what he’d had with Lucy all those years.

That realisation, however late it may have been, had become his inspiration while he was away. He had to be stronger, better, smarter. He needed to become MORE so he could go home to Lucy.

Seeing her on the balcony when he crashed the GMG was glorious but watching her waltz down those stairs wearing an outfit like that and her face proudly wearing an expression that screamed ‘don’t fuck with me’…yeah. It was the hottest thing Natsu had ever seen in his life, and he’d seen Lucy naked.

‘She’ll close that gate if you don’t use it, you know,’ Loke chuckled to himself.

Virgo had told him about her plan, but it was these idiots’ reaction to Virgo’s plan that he had been most interested in.

And their reaction did not disappoint.

**‘Hurry** up then, boys,’ Erza said, stepping through Lucy’s gate and out into a large room full of people.

She recognised some of the people in the room, people she had encountered during her dealings with the Rune Knights and the Council. She recognised Doranbolt and Lahar immediately, nodding in greeting despite Doranbolts’ glacial expression.

Lucy was standing at the head of a long table where ten men and women sat, including Jura.

‘What is the meaning of this?!’ yelled a man with a moustache to rival the size of his whole head.

He lost his confidence the moment Lucy looked his way.

‘Lahar,’ she commanded, turning her back on Moustache. ‘Tell me what happened with FACE in the aftermath of the Tartaros attack.’

It was an order and like any good soldier, Lahar didn’t hesitate to obey.

‘Nothing,’ he seemed confused. ‘We left the remains of it in the rubble. It was useless and no longer able to be powered, so there was no reason to waste time and resources to remove it.’

‘Mhmm,’ she turned back to the council. ‘So, what happened to the remains of FACE after the Tartaros attack?’

Some wore clear expressions of confusion, Jura remained neutral but then there was Moustache and whoever the hell was sitting next to him.

‘Really? What about you Elian?’ she asked of Moustache, honing in on their obvious guilt. ‘Yorga, nothing to add?’

Yorga turned a worrying shade of purple at being called out, but Elian had gone completely still.

‘I’ll take that as your confession,’ Lucy stated, her voice a terrifying monotone that made even Erza’s skin crawl.

‘Now you wait just a moment!’ Elian began, finding his spine. ‘Don’t you dare!’

‘I have to interject, Lady Lucy,’ Jura began, purely professional. ‘Might I ask what this is about?’

‘Elian and Yorga have been experimenting with the remnants of FACE,’ Lucy growled.

A round of shocked gasps and cries of outrage echoed throughout the room and Elian and Yorga stood to leave - only to find themselves blocked in by Capricorn and Scorpio, who shoved them back into their seats and secured them with celestial cuffs.

‘Explain,’ demanded an older woman at the other end of the table. ‘Please.’

She’d added the ‘please’ after Lucy had looked at her and raised her brow.

‘They collected parts of FACE from the areas nearest their districts and put together a group of mages to study it. They have managed to figure out how to reactivate it after reconstructing one of the nodes using pure ether nano.’

Jura, never one to lose his calm, just about blew the room to pieces when he let his power rage.

‘We were supposed to be better!’

‘I’m not done,’ Lucy quietly, but forcefully, distracted Jura. Once he sat back down, she continued. ‘After the battle I discovered three children whose magical potential had been compatible with the energy put out by FACE during it’s activation. Their powers had been amplified to dangerous levels and they couldn’t control themselves. I took them in and trained them and I’m happy to say that they haven’t had an outburst in several months. However, two months ago those children were kidnapped. I managed to locate one of them and brought her home last night, and I have since located the remaining two, but it is why they were taken that is most important, wouldn’t you agree Elian and Yorga?’

This time Erza did shield her eyes, the glow overtaking the room so bright that her eyes hurt even from behind her hand.

By the time her eyes adjusted, Erza had missed Lucy dragging Elian and Yorga from their seats and throwing them onto the table in front of the other council members, serving them up like suckling pigs.

‘Tell them,’ Lucy demanded, stepping onto the table and drawing the celestial whip that Erza had always coveted. She snapped it through the air, the sound sending a shock wave throughout the room.

‘Th-they’re the key,’ Yorga stammered.

‘Shut. Up,’ Elian growled, but Yorga was way too terrified to listen to him.

‘I didn’t want to, I swear I didn’t want to. I didn’t even know what he’d done until it was too late, I promise I never wanted…’ the begging continued until Lucy cracked her whip again, wrapping it around Yorga and slamming him into a wall.

‘Speak clearly, now Yorga, I believe you’ve become rather hysterical.’

Erza shivered and didn’t even try to hide it. Lucy was scary.

‘The children can activate FACE,’ he cried, actual tears streaming down his face as Elian glared daggers into that pathetic coward’s brain.

‘You swine!’ a young woman jumped across the table and slammed her body down onto Elian, arms swinging as she pummelled the stupid man.

Lucy made no move to stop her.

‘ _This council is certainly less…refined,’_ Erza thought to herself, remembering the snobbery and ‘better than thou’ attitudes of many of its former members.

‘Why? Why would they do this?’ Jura just seemed…sad. Tired and sad.

‘Power,’ Lucy growled, ignoring the fight going down to her right as the woman continued to pummel Elian and two other council members tried to stop her.

‘Enough, Nora!’ Jura yelled, the girl beating the crap out of Elian stopping long enough to glare at him. ‘We need information right now and let’s not forget that FACE is once again a threat to us and that there are still two missing children.’

That seemed to take the air right out of Nora’s sails.

‘They harmed babies, Jura,’ Nora growled, damn near feral.

‘Yes, and they will pay when the time is appropriate. Right now, we have larger concerns.’

Nora sat in the nearest chair, Yorga’s if Erza was remembering correctly.

‘Please continue, Lady Lucy,’ Nora said, forcing calm and patience.

‘I already know where Mika and Odette are located and have everything in place to save them and arrest everyone involved. It is FACE that is your main concern.’

‘Our concern?’ asked Nora.

‘Yes. The council created FACE, it is the council that it abusing FACE right now. FACE has always been your responsibility and, as long as the council is this pathetic in their lust for power, cleaning up these messes will always be your responsibility,’ Lucy raised her hand, silencing those who would have spoken out – whether in their anger or offence at Lucy’s accusations. ‘Clean up your fucking mess.’

‘How do you suggest we do that?’ Jura asked, the other council members seeming to take their cue from him.

‘You weak bastards!’ Elian shouted through a heavily bruised face, his moustache now missing a few patches. ‘She isn’t on the council, that star bitch has no power here!’

Jura, the ever so calm, peaceful and loving Jura, jumped across the table and kicked Elian square in the teeth.

‘My apologies,’ he bowed to Lucy. ‘Please continue.’

‘You are going to find and destroy every molecule of FACE that remains in the world. I don’t care how much rubble you have to excavate in order to do it,’ she stood and turned to leave, throwing one more menacing line over her shoulder as she opened a new gate. ‘And gods help you if I find so much as a single atom when you’re done.’

**Gray** stepped through the gate after Lucy, stunned into absolute silence.

They just…rolled over for her. The COUNCIL. The Council that presided over all of Fiore. That Council. They just...obeyed.

_Holy. Shit._

‘Capricorn,’ Lucy summoned, the spirit appearing half a second later.

‘I’ll keep watch,’ he said.

‘I want you to lead them, actually,’ even Capricorn seemed surprised. ‘I need them to know that they’re being watched, not just to suspect it. So, lead the search. Take whoever you need, I’ll keep the gates open as long as the search takes. Destroy everything you find.’

Capricorn bowed and poofed, disappearing as quickly as he came.

‘Will it be effective to have Capricorn lead their search and destroy mission?’ Erza asked.

‘Yes. There are ambitious members on the council, those who would seek more power where they could, but none who would seek that power at the detriment of innocent people.’

‘You seem pretty confident about that,’ Gray said. ‘You’ve gotta be damn sure when it comes to FACE.’

Lucy shared a secret smirk with Virgo as Horologium appeared.

‘It is time, Lucy. I shall sound the alarms.’

Everything moved quickly after that and within a few hours, Lucy had beaten the shit out of and arrested another thirty or so members of Elian and Yorga’s dark guild and has another two children resting in Porliusica’s home.

‘You did well, Lucy,’ Porlisuica whispered in a rare moment of affection.

‘Their recovery?’ Gray asked, also whispering to avoid waking the kids.

‘Physically, they’re perfectly fine. Mentally and emotionally may be a different story, only time can tell,’ Porliusica answered.

‘They’ll be fine,’ Erza mumbled from her seat right next to the bed where all three children lay huddled against each other. ‘Children are resilient. I will guard them and continue their training.’

‘Actually, I need you to go and find Crime Sorciere,’ Lucy said, pulling a folder out of thin air and handing it to Erza.

Erza’s jaw dropped open when she read the file.

‘Wha-how? But Fairy Tail is – when?’

‘There is a catch, they have to bear the Fairy Tail Guild Mark.’

Natsu, too curious to wait, went and read the file over Erza’s shoulder and almot had a heart attack himself.

‘But he was convicted of murder,’ he gasped.

‘Yes, by a corrupt council who wanted to sweep the Tower of Heaven under a rug and forget it ever happened,’ Lucy said. ‘Fairy Tail doesn’t exist, but it hasn’t been legally deregistered as a guild, so as long as it still legally exists, then this deal remains.’

‘What is it?’Gray finally asked, needing to know what the hell was in that file.

‘It’s…Jellal and Meredy…Cobra…their records have all been expunged. They have to trade Crime Sorciere for Fairy Tail, but they won’t have to hide anymore. They…they can come home,’ the tear that fell down Erza’s check almost broke Gray’s heart.

He’d never had to suffer for love, Juvia had loved him from the moment they met, but Erza had done nothing but suffer for Jellal…and now he was free, and she could finally have him.

‘I have to go,’ Erza gasped.

Lucy pulled the Fairy Tail Guild Stamp from the air and tossed it to Erza.

‘Mark them before they arrive in Magnolia,’ she said before leaving the room and opening a gate just outside the door to Porliusica’s home.

‘I’d suggest you idiots do your best not to screw this up,’ she said as she watched her door swing closed behind Lucy. ‘That woman has been through enough without being abandoned all over again.’


	12. Chapter 12

**Meanwhile** , the other members of Fairy Tail were arriving in Bosco. Ships moved surprisingly fast when you had a Water Woman to manipulate the tides.

‘We’ll split up after we resupply,’ Laxus addressed the crowd behind him. ‘Warren and Cana, you’re our most important people in this. We need to stay in communication as best we can.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve been training non-stop since we left Magnolia, my telepathy has a massive range now,’ Warren said proudly.

‘And I have enough cards for everyone to take at least two each. Keep one in a pocket in case you need and another tucked away in case you lose the first one,’ Cana said, moving over the deck and passing around her lacrima cards.

‘Everyone below deck!’

Laxus cringed as Levy’s shout rang out across the crowd. For someone so damn small she had the lungs of a banshee when she needed them. Everyone all but ran down to where Levy and Freed had set up their work room. The centre was a large map of Bosco. The areas that Lucy had already searched were blacked out and Freed’s enchantments had elevated the areas still needing to be searched into a 3D visual of the entire area. What was more impressive about it was that a little adjustment to those enchantments by Levy had made those 3D parts represent the real time happenings in those areas. There was a storm hanging over the mountain range that needed to be searched in the North West, for example.

‘Slayers, please take up different positions in the room,’ Freed said.

Laxus, Wendy, Gajeel and Rogue – who was surprisingly easy to convince to come along with them – went to different corners of the room and were then subjected to the calculating glares of Levy and Freed. They were different people when they slipped into their analysis modes.

‘Gildarts, Mira and Gray will go with Wendy,’ Levy started and Freed added on to her lists, separating the guild into teams based on….Laxus didn’t know what they based their team strategies on but the end result seemed to be four balanced and effective teams in his eyes.

**Rogue** stood with Minerva and Froshe surrounded by a group of Lucy’s former guild mates and was struggling to find his rage. Froshe provided a level of comfort that kept him grounded as he sat on Rogues head and looked around the room.

He hated them for what they did, but the people he was seeing now were dedicated to, and solely focussed on, helping her. He knew they weren’t coming home unless they could find Aquarius key and it began to warp his rage, uncovering the affection he once held for Gajeel and Natsu and making way for a little of that old friendship to shine through.

Watching Gajeel now…Rogue could still see how it had become his lifes goal to measure up to the Iron Slayer. Well he was an Iron Shadow Slayer now wasn’t he? Gajeel had somehow become better in the last two years. He was a leader, more open, he seemed to feel the positives in the world now instead of living in a cynical life of negativity. Rogue attributed that to his relationship with Levy. Levy was a firecracker and if Gajeel ever slid back into the darkness with her around then Rogue would eat his boots.

‘We should get moving,’ Minerva pulled him out of his thoughts. ‘We have a lot of land to cover and we’ll need your shadows to get in and out of some of these cave systems.’

He signalled to his team, grateful that Minerva had come with him. They may have been a couple, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be independent. Minerva was supposed to head out on a mission the morning that Fairy Tail came knocking at Sabretooths doors. She hadn’t hesitated in handing that mission to Rufus and Orga.

They had struggled with Yukino. She had wanted to come along by any means necessary, but she simply didn’t have the strength to do it. She was stronger, improving upon where she was just the other day when they’d seen Lucy, but she wasn’t up to a national search of the terrain, even if she was the best person for the job.

‘Is everyone ready to go?’ he turned to his _team_.

‘We’ve gathered all the supplies and we’re ready to set out,’ Juvia replied.

Rogue understood why Juvia had been placed on his team. The area he’d been assigned to was a mountain range with an extensive cave system woven throughout the area. Caves would be an issue for a regular mage, but Rogue could travel through shadows and Juvia could liquify herself. Those skills would be invaluable when it came to areas within those caves that became too small, or if they came across a part of the cave only accessible through a small crack in the stone.

The ship quickly emptied as each team left and made their way to their search locations.

Laxus team was lucky. He used his lightning to teleport his whole team across Bosco and they were able to start their search immediately. Everyone else, Rogue included, would have to make their way by foot or train or any other means that they could find.

None of that mattered, though.

The only important thing was that they were on the hunt and they would be able to mend that small break in Lucy’s heart soon.

Having Aquarius back wouldn’t heal her, there was no easy fix for Lucy’s pain, but she would be able to resolve the guilt that weighed so heavily on her soul.  
  


**It** had been a week since they had found the children and, though Lucy did seem more relaxed, she was still closed off to them. She didn’t outright ignore them, which was a drastic improvement, but there was no conversation or recognition…nothing.

Erza understood, she really did, but for Christ sake!

She knew it came from selfishness and her own need, she knew that Lucy was just not mentally or emotionally ready to accept them, but Erza wanted her friend back. She wanted her team back together.

Erza needed her family.

So, it was time to be proactive.

When Loke looked over to their table from the bar she signalled for him to follow her, telling the others that she was going to her favourite bakery. She sat on the bench across the road from the Guild hall and waited. Part of her thought he wouldn’t show, but it was only ten minutes later that he sat on the bench beside her and rested his elbows on his knees with a sigh.

It was then that she realised that Loke was tired as well.

‘Do you remember what this place used to be?’ he asked her.

‘It used to be home.’

They sat there in silence for a while, just watching the Guild. Erza's memories played out in the real world. She watched an eight-year-old Natsu run up and try to tackle Gildarts. She saw herself and Mira brawling across the cobblestones. She watched Happy hatch from that egg in the middle of the hall. She saw her life play out in technicolour as she stared at the new Guild Hall. It may be bigger, more modern, but it was still home.

‘How do we get that back, Loke?’

‘I don’t know,’ Loke sighed. ‘Lucy is trying, I know she is, but she just…can’t. She has so many demons and she spends every day of her life just managing that pain.’

‘What does she need?’

‘She needs her family. Even she knows how much she needs Fairy Tail. She just can’t right now,’ he held his hand up to stop Erza from speaking. ‘I don’t know everything in her mind, Erza. I just know the things she’s trying to deal with. She has panic attacks, lives with constant anxiety. She still feels physical pain from some of her injuries from Tartaros. You can’t heal from crushed bones like she had without there being side effects and it really hasn’t been all that long since those breaks knit themselves back together. Her heart, mind and body just hurt.’

‘And there’s nothing we can do to fix any of that,’ Erza was defeated. She was hoping to gain some insight from Loke, but not like this.

She wanted to know what needed to be done to pull her family back together, but there’s no easy answer to healing Lucy and it was stupid and naïve of her to hope there would be.

‘Just stay,’ Loke sighed. ‘It’s the only thing I can think of that might help. Prove to her that she isn’t alone in the world and that letting you back in won’t cause her more pain. She’s lost two families now, Erza. Her heart won’t survive losing a third.’ 

‘We need to stop trying to force family and just be people,’ Erza looked at Loke. ‘We came back expecting for everything to just fall back into place and for everything to be the same.’

‘Lucy doesn’t want that,’ Loke said, shocking Erza.

‘She doesn’t want us at all?’

‘She doesn’t want things to go back to the way they were before,’ Loke clarified. ‘She doesn’t want the old Lucy to exist again. For Lucy, who she was before just isn’t good enough. The strength she has now, her leadership and connections and skills, she wouldn’t trade them for anything.’

‘We did that to her as well, I suppose,’ Erza admitted. ‘We never let her shine. If a fight broke out it was always Natsu, Gray and I who jumped in and forced Lucy to play a support role. We sparred with each other, but never with Lucy. We protected her way too much.’

‘Look, we could keep playing this game of misery poker all day and we wouldn’t have a winner,’ Loke laughed. ‘At the end of the day, this shit is fucking hard and we’re all drowning.’

‘I kind of thought getting Mika, Odette and Arilla back would calm her, but Lucy is as tense as ever.’

‘The abductions and the Dark Guild, the Council, it was a pressing issue and one she would have fought to the death to resolve, but it was also a distraction for her. She doesn’t have that distraction now, so she’ll throw herself back into whatever work she can to try and move her mind back into a safer territory.’

Distraction. Erza remembered what that was like. After escaping the Tower of Heaven, she’d picked up a sword and armour and spent hours, days, weeks doing nothing but train.

She’d physically exhaust herself every day so the moment she fell into bed she would sleep. Training everyday had stopped the memories, exhaustion every night had stopped the dreams. The anxiety and fear over what was happening with Jellal meshed with her every day life, there was no distraction from that, but it could be assimilated into daily life without ruining her future.

Fighting with Mira, who would become her best friend purely from their rivalry, had saved her and stopped the vicious cycle of train, sleep, train, sleep.

Once she’d opened to Mira she could give more freely to others. Laxus became her rival – her true rival. Her competition with Mira was friendly. No matter how brutal their fights became, they were born of affection.

Laxus? She beat the shit out of him out of pure spite. His arrogance and entitlement and condescending attitude back then had reminded her too much of what the tower had done to Jellal and she wanted to beat it out of him, no matter what it took.

They mostly fought in private training areas as a matter of safety. They were power houses, even as kids, and for them to fight all out they needed to make sure no one else could get hurt.

But that privacy meant that there were no witnesses. The reality of Fairy Tails strongest wizard was more nuanced than people wanted to believe. Mystogan, Laxus, Erza and Mira may have all been S Class, but Erza annihilated all of them at one point or another. She wasn’t one to brag, being far too analytically minded in battle to bother with holding a victory over anyone’s head, but she’d even bested Gildarts once.

Only once, he learned more from that fight than Erza would ever know, but she’d still done it. Turns out that Crash Magic requires a build-up of power and was completely directional. The impact was devastating, but the target couldn’t be tracked. Once the energy was released then it went in a straight line, no matter where the target moved to.

So, Erza just had to be fast.

She’d put the pommel of her sword in the centre of his face with so much force that she’d knocked him out and sent him through the wall.

If asked who the strongest member of Fairy Tail was then the only honest answer that Erza had was Gildarts, but the second strongest was an easy four way tie – three way tie now that Mystogan was gone.

That answer had changed.

If asked, then the only honest answer would be that Lucy was the strongest Fairy Tail wizard.

With what she had felt so far of Lucy’s energy, Erza had no doubt that she could take Gildarts.

‘Right,’ Erza stood and turned to Loke. ‘The plan from now is to simply stop forcing it. If an opportunity arises to speak to Lucy, then we will, but we won’t try to manufacture those situations from now on.’

Loke poofed and Erza took that as a sign of approval.


End file.
